Last night, my friends and I saw That 1 Guy at Higher Ground in Burlington. The show was great. That 1 Guy is not just an extremely talented musician, one-man-band, and stage magician, but also an inventor who created his own multi-function instrument: the Magic Pipe.?His bio says it better than I could:
Eventually frustrated by the inability to get all the sounds in his head from the upright bass, he built a system of electronically wired, steel plumbing, shaped somewhat like a harp, with a thick bass string wired from top to bottom and a hole that billows smoke during the climax of his live shows. Adding an electric cowboy boot plugged in and played like an African talking drum and an electrified musical handsaw…
?The Magic Pipe basically employs the same principle as a gutbucket,? he says of the instrument?s origin. ?That was the initial inspiration for creating it. It also resembles the diddley-bow, which was basically a metal cable attached to the side of the house, from the roof to the porch, and played by the original bluesman with a beer bottle like a slide guitar.?
Take a look and a listen to his latest videos, “Mash” and “Buttmachine.”