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Car pipe organ

 A new musical instrument for the modern avant garde composer
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Attach organ pipes to top of car. Use keyboard as described in the steering wheel drum machine annotations. Set cruise control to optimum speed (to tune the pipes). Play music. Drive through long tunnels for the acoustics.
—globaltourniquet, Apr 26 2002

(?) Large Hot Pipe Organ http://www.lhpo.org/
If you hook the pipes into the car's exhaust system, generate deliberate backfires to drive it, and scale way up, you get this. [krelnik, Oct 13 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

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       Believe it or not, I've seen this. Somewhere on the 'net, there is a page about a customized hearse that has a big stack of organ pipes built into the back of it. All very Gothic looking. I can't remember where I've seen it, though. I'm not sure if the pipes were functional.
—waugsqueke, Apr 26 2002
   

       be a devil of a job trying to work the foot pedals and the clutch / accelerator / brake. need a pet octopus as a passenger. hook up the exhaust pipe to it for the gas needed or did you envisage blowing into it like a bagpipe?
—po, Apr 26 2002
   

       Well, if you make the pipes sensitive enough, my intent was that the wind provide the air needed for the sound. Thus the driving speed tuning comment.
—globaltourniquet, Apr 26 2002
   

       you must have a row of little knobs along the dashboard- although I can't remember what those little gizmos were for. this brings back some happy memories, gt thanks, croissant BTW
—po, Apr 26 2002
   

       They're called "Stops," po. That'ts where the phrase "Pulling out all the stops" came from, since when you pull them all out on an organ, you open up all the pipes.   

       Leaves an ambiguity when associated with a car, however.
—bingo foo, Apr 26 2002
   

       thank you bingo. remember now, I was miles away in a daze of fond memories. just me and dad, he was playing a huge church organ in his own inimitable saloon bar style. the tune was - "happy days are here again, lalalalalala"
—po, Apr 26 2002
   

       I keep imagining the 'Ice Cream Man Song' (whatever that is).   

       And if the organ is wind-driven, I think the best part would be when the car was accelerating from / decelerating to a stop.
—phoenix, Apr 26 2002
   

       Hold your harmonica outside the window while driving.
—thumbwax, Apr 26 2002
   

       (lol) thumbwax, that was the first thing i thought of when i saw this thread. actualy comedian Steven Wright used to joke about that.   

       it also reminds me of the time my dad and i drove on a highway with an extention ladder tied to the roof. it had hollow, tubular rungs, and the wind whistled across them while we drove.   

       this car organ thing should be programable, so you can have the music while driving alone, and don't have to drive and worry about hitting the right notes for "in the good old summertime". it might be fun to have....croisant.
—wess, Apr 26 2002
   

       I actually had an idea similar to this just a few days ago, though my version used a great many tuned car horns for a more raucous effect. I didn't post it, though. They say great minds think alike... croissant.
—magnificat, Apr 27 2002
   

       magnificat: I can't remember which car company it was (it may have bee neither Rolls Royce or Rover) who set up a hell of a lot of cars along the river Thames in London, each with their car horn tuned to a different note, and then played some tune or another on them. It was for a PR thing of some variety.
—kaz, Apr 29 2002
   

       Last night I was exploring an instrument that consists of corrugated plastic tubing a diameter roughly that of a .50 cent piece. While holding one end, you can twirl it around in circles... doing so at a slow speed produces a "note", speeding it up slightly, takes that note up an octave... speed it up again, up another octave...I'm able to get 5 octaves without throwing out my shoulder. I thought it would be interesting to connect this to my vehicle... but then thought I would have to drive relatively slow for the sound to be audible because of the diameter of the tubing... tubing of a larger diameter would take more air flow to produce the notes... then it popped into my mind cutting different lengths and connecting 12v electrical slide valves to the top of each, wiring them to corresponding buttons inside the vehicle that a passenger could play like an instrument, while the driver is driving down the road. Push a button, the top slide valve moves back, opening it and allowing the air to pass across the pipe, whistling that note. An "automotive pipe organ". It seems like easy enough construction. One would only need to determine the length equivalent for the corresponding "key" and find a place on the car where the pipes would get unobstructed air flow without interfering with the safe use of the vehicle... perhaps a mounted fixture protruding off of the front bumper. Then I googled the idea and saw that someone else had it as well! By using electronics to control the slide valves, programming it to play songs would probably be relatively easy as well. Fun idea!
—Mr Doobie, Mar 14 2011
   


 

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