The most typical material of guitar is wood. Whether it’s an acoustic guitar with a large cavity or a solid electric guitar, buildings usually use a lot of wood. However, [Mattias Krantz] showed us that other construction methods can be used by building his own balloon guitar.
Balloon guitars still have necks, bridges and strings like other guitars. However, instead of the resonator of the acoustic guitar, there are provisions for the installation of a large balloon. In fact, it’s very interesting to watch it – with balloons installed, the volume of the guitar is much higher than when there is no resonator at all.
This is to test whether the helium in the guitar actually changes the tone. Of course, the pitch of the guitar comes from the tension on the vibrating string, so changing the gas in the resonator will not directly affect it. On the contrary, just like inhaling helium to affect human sound, it is the timbre of the sound that changes, not the pitch itself. It sounds as if the guitar has been given a subtle treble boost.
This is an interesting build that shows us that musical instruments can be built in many ways, not just using traditional technology. However, if you want to make further use of the sound of guitar, you can consider turning to the world of machine learning.
