Diddley Bow Buildin'

In our second unit we studied the way sound traveled and related to our everyday lives. So much of our communication depends on sound. When you are watching the news you are receiving sound waves that are traveling through the air around you. This project is about making our own one string guitars to represent the elements of sound we have been studying like, sound waves, wavelength, pitch, frequency and amplitude. In this unit I also learned about how speaker and microphones work we also got to study how sound waves can affect water and sound and other elements. In order to gain some more expert knowledge on our study of sound we went on an FE to a sound lab, where one of their team leaders talked to us about the kind of work they do and the importance of acoustics when architects are creating new buildings.

My guitar produces sound when the string vibrates against the body of the guitar, and the tin can amplifies the sound. When using a slide you change the frequency by shorting the vibrations of the string. The Doppler effect happens when a sound is coming towards you as it seems to be higher pitched and when it is traveling away it sounds lower pitched. My guitar could show this when used in a marching band, because you are changing formations and moving closer and farther from the listener. In order to successfully make this guitar we had to make and understand a lot of measurements of the elements of sound like pitch and amplitude. Sound waves are the waves created by sound traveling through air. Wavelength is the measurement of waves peak to peak. Pitch is the quality of sound based on the frequency of the sound waves. Frequency is the rate of the waves. Amplitude is the maximum level of sound waves. This is important because it affects how loud you want it to be.

JB GCE sketch 

Can: body
Battery: nut
Back: bridge
Wood: neck

The measurements on my specific guitar were:
Vibrating string: 9in
Note: F#
String thickness:
0.057in

JB Harmonics 2016

Harmonics:
Pitch: (first harmonic)
185.52Hz
Frequency of 2nd Harmonic:
371.04Hz
Frequency of 3rd Harmonic:
556.56Hz
Frequency of 4th Harmonic:
742.08Hz
Wavelength:
186.49cm
Wavelength 2:
93.2cm
Wavelength 3:
62.1cm
Wavelength 4:
46.6cm
Volume of can:
56.54in^3
I got this by using pi x r^2 x height

JB AP2 Diddley Bow 2016

If I were to do this project over again I would make sure to get a thicker peace of wood so the screws won't poke out of the bottom. I would also make the guitar on a larger scale so it could be louder and have more notes and strings. In conclusion the concepts we learned in making the guitars can help us when we will need to manipulate and calculate sound in other experience and projects in the future.