After playing with wind flutes for the last HISSandaROAR library and one I am still to finish post on, I have had a hankering to explore the idea more… So I start a list & make a note of ideas but one element I need & didn’t have ready access to was the pipes themselves. I used up all the electrical conduit I had on hand, and always hesitate going to a hardware store & spending up as its likely a slow project ie it might be a few months until I have free time & decide to pursue it etc… For reference PVC pipe costs NZ$5-8/metre, depending on diameter & how much you buy. So 10 metres would be NZ$50-NZ$80…
On Sunday I was vacantly browsing FaeceBook marketplace, which at times is like the wild west of online secondhand junk being sold.. And unfortunately you have to be careful. I was looking at a lovely Gretch hollow body guitar for sale locally for $500 and suddenly noticed the same model for sale in Auckland for $1100. And when I say the same model, the photos looked identical including the background, shot on a deck with a particular kind of ferns behind it. The $1100 model had lots of photos including a photo of the serial number inside the guitar. The cheaper guitar only had four photos, ripped from the Ak seller. So for ‘fun’ I message the seller of the cheap guitar & ask if I can see the serial number and guess what? He sends me the same photo of the serial number from the AK guitar. At this point I reported his account & lost all interest… But then noticed this photo:
Conduit!
And lots of it, in different sizes & lengths… and they wanted it all gone for $40 cash!
This morning I jumped in the car & went & picked it up… and I took a battery saw to cut some bits that were too long to fit in the car…
Not sure I can totally predict how all of this will be used but… On the drive home I started imagining handheld chords: five or six shortish pipes tuned to a lovely complex chord… And an ensemble of tones, attached to the roof rack on my car, recording doppler drive bys… And maybe some will even be used as electrical conduit – stranger things have happened! I have also seen it used for creating structures for vege gardens to support netting, so some might find its way there eventually too… But feel free to hit me up if you have some wacky idea? I do want to build multiples of the little potters wheel too, so I need to do a bit of research on appropriate motors and how to mount & control them…
It is UV stabilised as its designed for outdoor use…