The Daxophone
Soundboxes, Daxes, and Complete Kits
If you like weird sounds, you will love the daxophone. This unusual instrument was invented by Hans Reichel about three decades ago. It consists of a thin strip of wood called a tongue that is usually bowed, and is mounted on a soundbox with contact microphones. Pitch and timbre are controlled by moving a rounded wooden ‘wedge’ called a dax to different positions along the tongue. I have carefully studied and extended Reichel’s design, and describe my approach below. HERE is a short video demonstration of one of my early daxophones with a simple rectangular tongue. The audio was recorded directly from the daxophone’s output without any effects or room reverberation.
Probably the most important change I’ve made is the use of a subtly contoured soundplate, which is the top plate of the soundbox where the contact microphones are mounted. This greatly improves the sustained contact between flat tongues and the soundbox regardless of where you press with the dax or bow along the tongue.
When using a flat tongue with the original soundbox design (and most daxophones currently available) you are very likely to lose good contact and hear a large drop in volume when playing in certain regions. Hans Reichel’s solution to this problem was to painstakingly sand the underneath side of every tongue he made so it was slightly contoured, which is a very time consuming process.
In my approach using a contoured soundplate, that process needs to be done only once by me. So making your own tongues simply requires that they are flat on the underneath side. The contour I have developed (over years of trial and error) also reduces the likelihood of ‘buzzing’ that flat soundplates can introduce, and provides a ‘big bottom bass’ sound. You will get consistent volume even for an up-bow without a dax pushing down on the tongue, for which flat surfaces often suffer large volume drops because the tongue is lifted away from the soundbox. The improved contact with the curved soundplate makes my daxophones noticeably easier to play.
I have elected to do away with the fixed tripod used in Reichel’s design and instead use an arca swiss mounting plate. These plates are used in the professional camera/video industry to mount heavy equipment to tripods. A big advantage of this approach is that you can very quickly mount or dismount the daxophone on the tripod. Particularly if you use a ‘ballhead’ on your tripod you can also easily adjust the angle of the daxophone to match your preferred playing style and seating or standing position. This is much more comfortable than mounting the soundbox on a table with a clamp, or even on a fixed height/angle tripod. You will find it much easier to get a wide range of sounds when the angle is adjusted to suit your personal preference.
The image below shows an illustration of the arca swiss quick-mount system with one of my daxophones. The mounting plate is cemented onto the underneath side of the soundbox so the whole tripod becomes a solid extension of the soundbox for optimal sustain.
To mount the daxophone you will need a tripod with a standard arca swiss head. Preferably a ballhead for quick and easy adjustments of the soundbox playing angle. Ballheads with larger diameter are more stable with heavy camera equipment, but even the inexpensive 28mm ballhead shown above works very well with the daxophone. Part of the reason for that may be that it is a nice low-profile ballhead, but others should work just fine too. You will also require a double bass bow. A German style bow may be preferable to a French one because it has more space between the wood and the hair, allowing a wider range of bowing techniques and a grip. You will also need some rosin (‘pops’ bass rosin works really well), and a sense of adventure!
My daxophones are professional quality instruments with careful attention to detail, refined finishing, and using the hardest and most beautiful fine grained woods available anywhere. I have happy customers all over the world, and will make every effort to ensure you are too.
Purchase options ( NEW September 2026)
Soundbox: My custom contoured soundplate is now available mounted on a traditional hardwood sound box, or alternatively on one made of engineered ebony, which is often used for guitar and bass fretboards. Either sound box is available on its own, or as part of a complete daxophone kit that further includes a high density dax (for tonal stability), and four tongues. Both sound boxes use the same hardwood soundplates, which makes them sound sound very similar because the rest of the box material has minimal effect. Click the buttons below to hear any subtle difference, but be sure to ignore any stylistic playing and pitch variations between the two takes!
Dax: I have switched to a new “precision engineered dax” that accurately implements the shape developed by Hans Reichel (including its fret locations). It retains a virtually identical tactile feel to dense hardwoods, but is even heavier by about 10% than Lignum Vitae, which is the heavy wood he used for his personal dax to ensure good note stability. It has a lower coefficient of friction than any hardwoods, allowing it to glide up and down the tongues more easily in case you don’t want to use the usual thin cardboard taped to the underneath side of your dax. It’s also more stable than any wood, being entirely resistant to environmental moisture and temperature variations. Having made daxes from many types of hardwood in the past, this is the dax I now personally prefer. I do still have a few hardwood daxes listed below until sold out
Buy Now (Paypal) – Ready for immediate shipping
All prices are in Australian Dollars, and are inclusive of free* world wide shipping.
* These prices do not include any duties or tariffs that may be payable upon arrival in your country
Complete daxophone kit W: classic hardwood soundbox with contoured hardwood soundplate, dax fretted on one side, and 4 versatile tongues
AUD$1199 (about $850 USD)
Complete daxophone kit E: engineered ebony soundbox with contoured hardwood soundplate, dax fretted on one side, and 4 versatile tongues
AUD$999 (about $700 USD)
Classic hardwood daxophone soundbox with contoured hardwood soundplate AUD$799 (about USD $575).
Engineered ebony daxophone soundbox with contoured hardwood soundplate AUD$599 (about USD $430)
“Precision Engineered DAX” fretted on one side AUD$250 (about USD $180 )
High density hardwood DAX fretted on one side AUD$300 (about USD $215 ) Limited stock.
