Maker

prefers not to give a surname). Now in a wheelchair, Shawn can no longer do the “spandex jumping-up-and-down-on-stage thing.” Asked to amplify Shawn’s autoharp and make it look cool, Kaiser replaced the soundboard with diamond plate, installed pickups, and added blinking lights and a Buick “Special” emblem. He also built FX units that Shawn’s Atomic AutoHarp plugs into for distortion and delay. Kaiser is sure it sounds “fantastically hellacious.”

When Kaiser had the Atomic AutoHarp on his workbench, his creative fancy turned to thoughts of piano harps, then zithers. Ultimately he created the Newport Custom for his own performances. It sounds like a “prepared piano” and beats hauling a baby grand to gigs.

That’s typical of Kaiser’s openness to experimenting and letting things evolve. “I’m a firm believer in discovering something while you are in the process of looking for something else.”

As he was building a tall, stringed instrument to be played with mallets — fashioned from piano hammers sunk into drumsticks — his violin bow fell onto the workbench. “Ah,” he thought,

36 Make: Volume 15

THE SOUND OF SERENDIPITY: “I’m a firm believer in discovering something while you are in the process of looking for something else.”

“It’s a bass!” He now plays that Upright Spring Bass exclusively with a bow.

In Kaiser’s ears and hands, almost anything can become a musical instrument. He got funny looks at a Goodwill store when he plucked the tines of a candleholder base and “they really resonated.” That 49-cent object became the JuJuBe, which Kaiser plays by running a violin bow around the tines and sending the sound through a modulation delay. “If I’ve got the right soundman, I can really rattle the windows.”

BENT, NOT BROKEN

Kaiser’s scorecard doesn’t track fame or fortune: “I’m as famous as I deserve to be, and I don’t need to be stinkin’ rich. I’ve got kids and a beautiful wife, and a nice house. I’m always looking for the next interesting thing, and it’s that process that gives me fulfillment.”

Kaiser’s website: timkaiser.org

Based in Minneapolis, Karen K. Hansen is a writer and clarinetist, of the classical ilk.