Propane Tank

A propane tank hang drum is a lot of work. If you think taking a plasma torch to a fuel tank sounds dangerous, you might be right--but not as dangerous as fine-tuning it with a power saw!

Warped Wheel

It's possible to play an entire symphony on a series of bike wheels. You'll need a spoke wrench, a violin bow, and the patience of a saint.

CO2 Tank Bells

These bells, made from empty carbon dioxide tanks, play a series of notes in E minor. We sliced through the metal walls with a reciprocating saw and found the correct pitches through frustrating trial and error. Thanks to Jon Scoville's Sound Designs for inspiration and the Monkey Bar for materials!

Mini-Synth

This pocket-size gadget plays adorable robot noises and other amazing sound effects. Can your cell phone do that?

Whirly Tube

The Whirly Tube is the most fun invented instrument in our collection. Any corrugated tubing will play a series of pitches as air rushes through it, based on the length and diameter of the tube. We use 1-inch vacuum hose and spin it at different speeds to change notes.

Rain Barrel

Blue barrels serve a number of purposes in Juice: bass drums, tap shoes, tables, chairs, packing containers, and more. This modified barrel is played with a stick attached through the bottom, making a loud rumbling, grumbling, groaning sound.

Silly Snare

This is a flat snare drum inside a flower pot. With its ultra-lightweight design, sleek curves and fun, fruity colors, this is the iMac of marching percussion.

Theremin

The theremin is our least percussive instrument--it's played without any contact at all.

BRANDON: "Did you know Lenin played the theremin?"
COLLIN: "John?"
BRANDON: "No...Vladimir!"

Rain Stick

A rain stick is easy to make at home: find a sturdy poster-size cardboard or other tube; spiral nails through the diameter end-to-end; fill with beans and cap at the ends. We never use this in our show, but it was a fun project!

Boomwhackers

We could have cut these plastic tubes ourselves, but we caved in and bought them instead. Hooray for Orff instruments!

Naked Tenors

Juice upgraded our simple but brittle Bucket Tenors to these homemade drums. Using assorted drum hardware, lumber, and wire, we built 10 sturdy new tenor drums from scratch.

PVC Didgeridoo

This is Juice's take on the ubiquitous aboriginal horn. We torched a perfectly good PVC pipe to twist it out of shape, then added a paraffin wax mouthpiece. Toxic!

 

Juice has invented, built, collected, modified, broken, and reinvented all kinds of instruments. Click on some of them at the right to explore our workshop and hear some of the sounds we create.