You may remember the Thomas Truax interview on Blather, that guy who builds his own instruments. Well, if you want to buy one of those hand-made instruments yourself, here’s an announcement from Thomas:
“Hi! After a lot of interest has been expressed over the years some of you will be happy to know I’ve finished the first of a VERY limited number of MINI SISTER SPINSTERS. Each of the Mini Spinsters is to be individually built by yours truly from a mix of found, one-of-a-kind plastic and metal parts I’ve been collecting over the years as well as more commonly available hardware and special bits, so though there will be a family similarity, they’ll all have a unique personality. I’m looking at them as a small series of art pieces. Could be a coffee table curiosity or an exciting mantelpiece decoration, or perhaps something to play your ukulele to. The prototype of these I made this past summer as a wedding gift for my dear friends Paul Stone (of the band The Chemistry Experiment) and his lovely wife Sara. (Flatteringly, they claimed it was ‘the best present ever’). This first of the few I’ll be offering for sale is called Wild Jane. She stands about 6” tall and plays a mean galloping rhythm. She also lights up. There’s a quicktime movie of her playing at my website [link below]. No need to feed or water her (though you might have to replace the batteries at some point).
Each machine is/will be unique in some way; one of a kind, signed and numbered. As they are individually crafted by hand, they will probably have some evidence of the ‘human touch’. Each will be motorized and play a single simple, but unique rhythm, similar to those featured in those of my own songs that feature my mechanical drummer Sister Spinster. I’m offering the first of these for auction on Ebay. Again, this is not mass production. As they are quite time consuming to build, I will only make a few of them, and not all of them will be for sale. I’m going to make a recording of each one before they leave home, so there’s a chance that those recordings may eventually show up somewhere on one of my future albums. See a small quicktime movie of Wild Jane in action.”
If that link doesn’t work try this one.
“Bid for a chance to make Wild Jane yours.”
If that link doesn’t work search for Truax Mini Spinster on Ebay.