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 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 also makes my daxophones 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 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 dax on a table (or piece of board) with a clamp. Having the daxophone at the wrong angle can significantly impede your playing and you will find it much easier to get a wide range of sounds when the angle is adjusted correctly.
The image below shows an illustration of the arca swiss tripod mount system with one of my daxophoness. 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. This sysem allows for super-quick portable setup of your daxophone in performances.
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!
Design update (July 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.
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 contoured soundbox, high density dax (for tonal stability), and three tongues. To purchase one, click the Buy Now button below. Contact me for pricing if you want more than three tongues.
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.
Complete daxophone: soundbox, dax (fretted on one side), and 3 versatile tongues
SALE AUD$1199 (about $800 USD, normally AUD$1495)
Prices are in Australian Dollars, and are inclusive of free world wide shipping. However, for buyers in the USA there will be an additional 12.5% charge to cover the mandatory tariffs that unfortunately I now have to prepay.
