The Daxophone
An acoustic synthesizer
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!
Update (August 2026): I have made some recent changes to the design of my daxophone that slightly extend its frequency response and boost its signal output level. If you are an existing owner of one of my previous daxophones and are considering updating to the latest version, please contact me to obtain discount pricing.
Buy Now – 20% off SALE NOW on complete kits ready to ship –
I currently have a small number of complete daxophone kits ready for immediate shipping (until sold out). These include a soundbox with a contoured soundplate, high density dax (for tonal stability), and three tongues. To purchase a kit, click the “Complete daxophone kit” Buy Now button below. Contact me for pricing if you want more than three tongues.
** NEW ** I now also offer just my contoured soundbox, and hardwood or ‘engineered’ dax (see below) as individual items.
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.
All prices are in Australian Dollars, and are inclusive of free* world wide shipping.
* For buyers in the USA, please add 12.5% of your purchase price to cover the mandatory U.S. tariffs that I’m required to prepay.
Complete daxophone kit: contoured soundbox with clamp, dax fretted on one side, and 3 versatile tongues
SALE AUD$1199 (about $800 USD), normally AUD$1495
Contoured soundbox only with clamp AUD$799 (about USD $560)
High density hardwood DAX fretted on one side AUD$330 (about USD $220 ). Limited stock.
** NEW ** Engineered DAX fretted on one side AUD$280 (about USD $185 )
The “engineered DAX” is a perfect version of 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, should you decide to forego 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.
