Invent a new musical instrument

I finished it up a couple weeks ago. It works and it has kind of an interesting sound. Imagine a cross between a slide guitar, a banjo and a sitar.

I’ve now found out how to deal with what I thought would be the most expensive parts of the process with much less expense. Last week, I saw an article on digg.com about the Provisional Patent Application (http://dumblittleman.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-stamp-patent-pending-on-your.html)_.
It will only cost me $80 and it’s good for a year (long enough to decide that it’s not going to work, sell the idea or save up for a normal patent)_. Then a few days ago I found an article on how to make your own pickups for $5
(http://www.diyhappy.com/how-to-make-a-guitarbass-pickup/)_.
Granted it’s going to be extremely time consuming, but $5 for something that should work is a lot better than $45 on something that I’m not at all sure about.

Thanks to my sister kicking my butt to actually get moving on more than just diagrams, a prototype for a 7-string electric malonette is now in the works and while it will still be a challenge, it should be quite a bit more doable than I had thought.

I’ve developed 3 different models so far. A standard 7-string, a 4-string soprano and a 13-string deluxe model that I’m calling a Malonetta. The 7 and 4 string models are acoustic and the 13 string is electric.

Last summer, my friend and unofficial co-producer, Pat challenged me to invent a new musical instrument. I came up with the basic design rather quickly (it’s really just a box with strings). A couple of months ago, I figured out the number of strings and tuning and have been refining it from there.