The making of a "planned didgeridoo"

by Kay Reimer

Each advanced Didgeridoo/Yirdaki player has his own preferences. Usually he purchases his instruments from instrument-makers or -dealers in Australia or elsewhere. He has to try all availible instruments one after the other, until he finds the desired Didge (or maybe not).

Some Didgeridoo-players crafts their didgeridoos themselves - usually because they loves crafting and for research. For me it has this both reasons . In the last 13 years I made many didgeridoos from a lot of different woods and materials. There always appeared the problem: The result was not exactly predictable. If I like to make a F-didgeridoo with a 1. trumpet of Fis -20%, then it could be a F with the first trumpet e.g. E +40% and (not always positive) surprising sound-characteristics.
To have a solution to this problem, I developed and made an adjustable instrument for testing purposes ("test A Doo").

In the next chapters I explain how I make didgeridoos which meets my actual preferences with basic-pitch, trumpet-pitch, back pressure sound-characteristics etc.