As the story goes, the seller sold an antique French violin to a buyer in Canada using PayPal. The buyer said the label inside the violin was incorrect and filed a dispute with PayPal. Rather than gather some facts or just have the buyer return the violin to the seller, PayPal has had the buyer destroy the pre-WWII musical instrument, because that’s how they apparently like to deal with items they think are “counterfeits.” The proud and equally douchebaggy buyer then emailed the seller the photos of the destroyed instrument.

According to the seller, the violin had been examined by a professional and found to be authentic, and improper labels are common in the old violin business. Now the seller is out the money that PayPal took back and the violin because the seller destroyed it. All I can say to the seller is get a lawyer and sue the buyer and PayPal. Why in the name of all that is good and geeky won’t someone step up and offer the world a viable eBay and PayPal alternative?

[via Regretsy via C|Net]

The TabStrummer uses an Atmel microcontroller, a MIDI output and an audio-out jack. The 12 memory buttons can be programmed with any chord/tab that can be played on a 12 fret guitar, and all the buttons can be programmed into any of the 300 memory SONG locations of TabStrummer’s internal memory. To listen to the TabStrummer, you can use headphones or connect it to your sound system or TV.

Geeky musicians would certainly love to get their hands on this instrument. To hear the TabStrummer in action, check out the video below. It sounds pleasant enough.

[via Hack-a-Day via Geeky-Gadgets]

The StompBox will work with a guitar, bass, keyboard, or electric violin. I bet it would work with one of those 80′s hair band Keytar things too. The software portion is an app from Frontier Design called iShred LIVE that allows the effects to be created in real time. The hardware part is a foot switch.

The foot switch has four buttons and each button can be programmed to a single effect. Once programmed the player can change between those effects using their feet so their hands are on the instrument at all times. The StompBox ships with a 1-meter long cable for hooking the iPhone or iPad to the instrument along with headphones. You can order it now for $99.99 over at the Griffin Technology website.

Known as the EOL Robot Band, this particular group of rag-tag electronic musicians includes a robotic cello, electric guitar, drummer, and the always popular flat-bed scanner. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the EOL Robot Band, with their cover version of The Beautiful People.

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It’s good to know that robots can really rock out if their set their minds to it.

[via YouTube]

The FlashHarp is a real, working harmonica that has a USB flash drive grafted into it for storing data and transporting your files just like any other flash drive will do. As an added bonus, the FlashHarp comes with video lessons already loaded on it to help you learn to play the harmonica.

The base model FlashHarp has 2GB of storage inside, and it also comes in 4GB and 8GB models. It comes with a plastic cap for protecting the USB connector as well. Prices range from about $50 to $85 over at BackyardBrand’s Etsy shop, depending on the model, and for a few more dollars, you can have yours personalized too.

The hats themselves are made from wool felt embedded with steel wool to create pressure sensors. These in turn allow the manipulation of sound. The hats use a Lilypad Arduino that was programmed with MAX/MSP software to use them as MIDI controllers. The funny, colorful balls control volume and speed. The LEDs were added mainly for theatrical reasons. Once they are illuminated, it means that the hat is ready to play.

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Watching this made me smile, even though the whole idea seems completely silly.

[Fashioning Tech via DVice]

Like a regular theremin, the Matryomin creates sounds when you adjust your hand position on the outside of it. When used properly, it can crank out tones that make this rendition of Love Me Tender sound like Elvis’ cat in heat.

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According to the guys who make this thing, it can crank out more than 5 octaves of sounds, but they still sound like strangled cats to me. If a single Matryomin wasn’t enough for you, here’s an entire Matryomin orchestra for your listening pleasure:

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Frankly, I think they should be playing the Star Trek theme. Apparently, about 3000 of these oddities were made in Japan a few years back, and this one over on eBay can be yours for the low, low price of $499 (USD).

The body of the instrument looks like a snail shell, it has four strings, a light wood neck, and the head has snail antennae on it. The construction is from hard maple and soft maple on top and the shell is hand painted.

If you want to rock out in the SpongeBob band, you will need to cough up 800 clams, and only one of them is available right now. The instrument was originally designed for Darby Wilcox of the band O Mello Cello Tree. Anyone know what that is?

[via Etsy]

The thing looks just like a real Fender guitar, mostly because it is a real guitar. It has six real strings and frets that you can jam with while playing your favorite game. Of course, the guitar has the buttons you need for controlling the game console and game built-in with a D-Pad and other buttons. But once you get the hang of rocking out in the video game, you can plug the guitar into an amp and play as you would a normal guitar.

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We are a ways out on this thing with pre-orders set to start in January 2011. The guitar controller won’t ship until March 1, 2011. The price for the thing is $279.99 (USD).

Gadget hacker Michael Rucci builds his audio mods into old electronic toys and other salvaged parts, but my personal faves are his Nintendo controller synths. He’s currently got this NES synth up on his Etsy shop.

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But from the looks of things he’s also done a version with one of those beefy NES Advantage controllers, using a pair of square-wave oscillators for sound generation.

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All of Michael’s synths make a variety of unusual analog sounds, and could be great for making electronic music, or just for having fun making noises. Unfortunately they don’t still function as game controllers, but I suppose that would get annoying when you play anyhow.

Created by Linus Akesson, the Chipophone has the looks of an old organ, but the brains needed to crank out awesome 8-bit sounds for live chiptune performances. Linus ripped out all of the original tone-generators and wired up keys via a bunch of 74HC165 chips, daisy-chained together to an Atmega88 controller chip. He also wired up the knob potentiometers to the microcontroller’s analog inputs.

In turn, the microcontroller generates MIDI signals which are sent to another Atmega88 chip which produces 8-bit sounds. Here’s Linus showing off his wondrous musical creation:

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What chiptune video would be complete without a performance of the Super Mario Bros. theme?

[via Synthopia]

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Actually, I think this cat has no idea what he’s doing with that Gakken Mini-Theremin in his paw. Maybe he thinks he’s killing some sort of squealy critter.

Anyhow, if there’s anything the Internet taught us this week, standing cats are funny, cats with electronics are funny too -  so this must be twice as funny, right?

[via Make:]

Just load up greySox String Trio, choose a bit of classical music, and press “play”. The music loads in and plays based on the strokes of the virtual “bow” that is your iPhone or iPod Touch. String Trio uses the motion sensor in your iPhone to detect the angle and length of your strokes, and adjusts the playback of the music accordingly. You can either choose automatic accompaniment (hence the “trio” part of the name), or perform a solo without any backing instruments. The video below should give you a pretty good idea of how it works.

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I don’t know about you, but that Beethoven demo track sort of sounded like the theme from Fawlty Towers to me. They really should add that one to the app and they’d sell a lot more copies. For now, you’ll have to settle for one of the over 20 included classical and folks songs bundled with the App. greySox is also offering in-app downloads of two additional 10-track collections, priced at 99 cents each.

String Trio is available now over at the iTunes App Store for $1.99 (USD).

Using the electronic ruler is as simple as using its analog ancestor. Press the power/reset button on the ruler and the LEDs light up, waiting for your input. The wooden cover conceals what the pencil in the image above is touching: a line of metal points jutting out from the inner edge of the ruler. The ruler uses the change in voltage induced by touching one of these points to calculate the distance.

Because of the LEDs and the ruler’s memory, you don’t have to memorize the length or distance of what you’re measuring even if it’s beyond the ruler’s length because the recorded length stays displayed as long as you don’t press the reset button.The ruler can also be set to remember a relative zero point; just touch the point you wish to be recognized as zero as soon as you press the reset button. And if you touch two points while pressing the reset button, the ruler will use the distance between those two points as one unit.

The functions and ease of use of Shafranek’s concept are certainly noteworthy, but I think its the wooden cover that really makes the electronic ruler awesome. I hope someone helps mass produce this. Check out Shafranek’s website for more details.

[via freshome]

The genius of this particular mod (beyond the fact that it’s a guitar) lies in the way the guitar is utilized. Not only does the conversion not affect (much) the guitar’s primary use–you can still play it–but when used as a controller, it operates in much the same way as the actual controller. Press the frets on one, press the frets on the other.

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There are plans to expand the project further, as though this isn’t cool enough.

[OpenChord via hackaday]

Seung yi Lee’s Drum Meister lets you use your fingertips to play drum sounds on little tiny pads that look just like their real-world counterparts. The app includes sampled sounds of a variety of snares, cymbals, a tom and a nice kick drum for that extra thump – 10 drums in all, and all on screen at the same time. The drums support multi-touch and you can slide your fingers across multiple drums to quickly play a riff. And since it’s a true polyphonic sampled drum kit, you can pound on ‘em all you want without the sounds cutting off.

One of the coolest things that Drum Meister lets you do is rearrange the position of the drums to suit your personal style and finger positions – plus the positions of the drums actually influences the position of the sounds with a 3D surround effect. It’s really slick if you’re listening through a pair of headphones or plugged into an amplifier.

You can even set one of the cymbals or the kick drum to be activated by a shake of your iPhone. Drum Meister also supports live recording of sessions and comes loaded with a 25 pre-recorded tracks for your enjoyment. No word on any online-sharing of tracks, but hopefully that’ll come in the near future as many iPhone music apps now have this feature.

But enough of my yakkin’. Here’s a video clip of this awesome application in action:

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Drum Meister is available now over at the iTunes App Store for $1.99 (USD), a whole lot cheaper than an actual set of drums – and a whole lot quieter, especially if you play them through headphones.

Smule’s new iPhone app, Ocarina turns your iPhone into a fully-functional musical wind instrument. This amazing little application works very much like the real deal, combining touch, tilt, gestures and human breath to create ethereal sounds which bring out your inner Zelda.

Just place your fingers over four virtual “holes” on the multi-touch screen, and blow into your iPhone’s microphone. What’s really cool about the software is that none of the sounds are pre-generated, rather they’re built in real-time based on your exact gestures and movements.

Check out the performance videos below to see and hear Ocarina in action. First, a solo:

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Now, a full orchestra of iPhone Ocarinas playing a little Led Zeppelin:

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As you play, you can share your performances live with other Ocarina users across the globe (and let them rate your musicianship), thanks to Smule’s Sonic Network technology. Smule has even provided a nifty online score generator which makes it easy to play just about any tune you want.

Sound cool? What are you waiting for? You can get Ocarina today over at the iTunes App Store for just 99 cents.

Aria’s Sinsonido series of guitars and basses somewhat resemble “normal” string instruments, but they’ve done away with the bulky wood body and replaced it with a lightweight rubber-coated aluminum frame.

The body can be broken down to fit easily into a carrying bag for transportaion, and the entire guitar weighs in at about 4 pounds. Even though it’s lightweight, the fretboard is built from durable mahogany wood, making it feel much more substantial than it looks.

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A built-in custom stereo condenser microphone picks up the audio and relays it to an internal pre-amp and a headphone jack for portability. Sinsonido guitars and basses can be found over at Adirondack Guitars starting around $400 a piece.

Now all I need is a version that works with Rock Band, and I’ll be all set.

Firestix drum sticks contain internal LED illumination which light up when you first start to bang on your drums with them. As an added bonus, Firestix are made out of durable Lexan, so they’re not likely to snap in two like the cheap wood sticks that ship with the game.

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As you can see from the video clip, they look really cool when played in a dark room. Firestix are available in both red and blue versions, and you can find them over on Amazon for about $25 a pair.

Created Long Beach, CA textile artist FunkieFresh, the set of handmade covers ties around each of the game’s four drums and helps them keep them down to a dull roar. I’ve seen other solutions to this problem (like some boring adhesive foam discs), but none which were so artfully crafted.

As an added bonus, each pad is crocheted using colors that properly match the original drum hues, so if you’re used to playing by color, not drum position, you’re totally in luck.

You can pick up a full set of Rock Band drum cozies on her Etsy shop for $40.