ECCO is a steel wired duochord
- for basses, rhythms, animals, clicks, screams, flirrs, bows, swooshes etc.
Play with sticks, bows, mallets, hands, laying on/clamped some surface, table.
Sound example (bass notes, swooshes, side stick things)
NEEDED
• a wood plank of 60-90cms,
• 1 or 2 steel wires, bridge/saddle
• 2 bass machine heads,
• 2 pickups, a cheap movable single coil for bass/body and a 4€ contact clip for highs/touch accentuation, summed summed through 6.8KΩ resistors to the tip of a mono Neutrik female 1/4” plug. Must feed a high impedance input, 250KΩ ++.
Thicker, heavier, longer wood pieces lead to richer tone & more bass.
Ecco V2 2013, at “Belleville”, Theater Bremen
V1 and V2019 use just one wire with two tuners.
I love the subsequent tuning unpredictability.
For more exact tuning use two wires.
MATERIALS
• 1 board of wood, 60-90 cms
V2 (pine): 80 × 7 × 1.8 cms, foldable, heavy
2019 (robinia): 60 × 6.5 × 1 cms for flight trips, not foldable, less weight, less bass
• 1 wood block as spacer underneath, plus screws
• 2 bass machine heads, left and right
• 2 black coated steel wires (ø 2mm, stage tech, max. tensile load 250 kgs), such as this. Thicker steel wire quickly puts a lot more load on wood and machine heads. Lashed/riveted ends are good. Experiment with your own type of strings.
• 1 cheap acoustic guitar pickup (Gifmen, single coil, 1 long magnet, 15€, Taiwan), movable, attached with cable binder.
• 1 5€ contact clip mic for finger noises, attach to taste
• Saddle & bridge pieces. Wood sounds rounder, steel has more sustain and gets you harder percussive attacks. Change to taste.
• Foldability? Use hinge with 4 screw holes on either side.
• Washers & wood screws. A lot, with appropriate right lengths and diameters.
To attach all kinds of things, and anchor wire(s) on rear side or at the lower end of the board.
MODS, DETAILS
V 2019 rear side
Bowable step tuner
Signal summing
Table clamp
Enjoy