Lately I have gotten away from plastic binding and begun to use wood. Believe it or not it is actually easier and less stressful to steam bend the wood and glue it to the body than it is to race the solvent-based cement as it melts the plastic binding. Aesthetically it is beautiful as well.

Click on our slideshow below for some ‘under construction’ photos taken of this newest Specimen. By the way, I am looking for a band to equip with all Luddite instruments. I think it would make an excellent stage presence.

This horn speaker is front loaded and therefore will project in a more direct way than the more spacial sound stage of our Specimen rear-loaded horns like the Little Horn Speakers and Liederhorns. This makes these Gimbal Horn Speakers aptly suited to front of house or PA applications.

The horn will be mounted to an aluminum yoke that suspends the cylindrical compression chamber from the ceiling. The horn can be positioned at any angle or rotated to suit the application of the room. We decided to utilize the wonderful and recently rejuvenated foundry facility at the Memphis Metals Museum. Located right on the Mississippi river bluff, it is the perfect setting for creating something using the age old technology of sand casting.

After making a wooden pattern to mount on either side of a backing board, runners and gates are added to allow the metal to flow and shrink. Sand is then packed into both sides of a two-part flask to prepare the mold for casting. Metal is then melted in a crucible inside a furnace and poured into the mold. Voila! Beautiful aluminum yokes for the newest Specimen Horns.

Below are some photos taken while I was at the Foundry casting the first yokes. Thanks to Doug Barton and Holly Fisher and everyone at the Metals Museum for all their help taking on this special project.

- Ian

Even though I am not an iron worker, many of the geometries and design processes of iron work overlap with the discipline of luthiery and kinetic sculpture. Much of the time I spent with the students involved a good deal of mechanical problem-solving and the bringing of wild concepts into the physical world. For example, we logged a few hours pouring over McMaster Carr’s web site shopping for collars and shafts, springs, gears, and other raw materials. And throughout each day, we dove rather deeply into topics such as axles, rotation, spring action, turns ratios, transfer of power, and the animation of sculpted objects. We conjured up shapes and mechanisms together and it was quite gratifying to see the student’s projects begin to take flight. We also found time to make Hornlets which allowed for demonstrations of my processes and work methods.

Immediately upon my arrival, I presented a slide show of my work to an attentive audience, trying to connect the dots between my past and present. In preparation for this, I scanned 38 sketch journals and 800 slides from the last 30 years of my work. This was cathartic, to say the least. As I looked into the past, it seemed so easy to identify the recurrence of themes and shapes that I am still using today. My fascination with the octagon, for instance, began 30 years ago when I was an undergrad at the Memphis Art Academy.

The campus at Penland is like an oasis of so many different mediums: books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking, textiles, wood, and other media. The collective efforts of the entire community at Penland creates an amazing energy. This was especially evident during mealtimes when everyone stops working and gathers to eat splendid dishes prepared by the students. In the evenings after diner, we would all convene again for a slide presentation of work from various departments and teachers.

Penland is truly a magical place, and on a mountain top to boot! I think I will need to visit again.

The dovetail was very close fitting and there was hardly room for my steam needle in the joint. It came out well enough after a bit of persistence. I changed the neck angle by re-carving the cheeks and dovetail and re-glued the neck. A complete re-fret was then carried out. The instrument gained even more volume from the enhanced pitch and played beautifully

Aron Sanchez and Arone Dyer, aka Buke & Gase
Photo: Grant Cornett

Read full interview here.

We met with Mark Pallman and his crew last September right at the time Ian was finishing the Upside Down Ceiling Janus. After nearly a year in development, this Specimen was due to be delivered to its new owner in a couple weeks. It seemed the perfect opportunity to document this one-of-a-kind horn speaker.

On the day of the shoot we invited a musician and good friend, the amazing Jim Elkington, to demonstrate the magic made possible with this unique speaker. After months of editing hours and hours of footage, the video is now complete. We couldn’t be prouder.

Check it out!
Nadine

Filmed in September 2012 at Specimen Products in Chicago IL.
http://www.specimenproducts.com/

This video features owner/engineer Ian Schneller detailing the internal structures and functionality of his first ever upside down spinning double horn speaker.

Musical demonstration by Jim Elkington

CREDITS
Directed by Fruit Bonus
Director of Photography – Drew Wehde
Camera Operator – Amanda Speva
Camera Operator – Mark Pallman
Camera Assist – Gary Maloof
Production Audio – Erik Rasmussen
Data Management – Abbie Hamilton
Editor – Mark Pallman
Assistant Editor – Tim Cahill
Animation/Design – Tyler Nelson
Titles – Jason Oberg
Color – Jeff Greco
Audio Mix – Marina Bacci

Below is an excerpt from a feature about Specimen at inhabitat.com, a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.

Founder of Chicago-based Specimen Products, Ian Schneller, and his team craft unexpected materials like dryer lint and recycled newsprint into sonically wonderful and highly sculptural horn speakers. These amazing sound vibrators are showing up on stage with indie music artists like Andrew Bird, table-side at the hangouts of Chicago’s most serious foodies, and winning space inside modern art museums and the tech-geek offices of Instagram. We recently spoke with Schneller to get the inside scoop on how Specimen’s speakers buck the electronic trends for miniaturization, high wattage output and planned obsolescence.

Read the full story here.

To create the binding, I first made up checkerboard tiles from rosette sticks. I ripped two different sized slots in a solid chunk of Teflon (even super glue is reluctant to stick to this material). After staging my sticks strategically in the Teflon slots, I impregnated the bundles with super glue. After it set, I managed to remove the logs. Then after sanding them, four quarter logs are placed in the larger slot and the process repeated.

I used a small mitre box to cut 2.5mm tiles from the logs. These are then individually tapered in order to negotiate the guitar’s curves. There is actually a hidden inner rivulet of alternating cubes inside the checkerboard.

Below is a slideshow of images detailing the binding process.

To begin with, the wings are glued down in a pattern resembling ceramic roofing tiles. Once in place, a perimeter mold is cut out and screwed down onto a Formica platter with mold release compound on it to ensure separation at the end of the process. Cup by cup, resin is catalyzed and put in a vacuum chamber to de-gas it and remove all the tiny bubbles. It is then carefully poured over the wings. This is done in small increments to avoid thermal runaway which would cause separation ‘silvering’ and ruin the casting. The resulting slab is about 1/2″ thick. It will be recessed into the guitar body with the standard pick guard thickness of 1/8″ protruding above the surface.

My next step is designing proboscis like patterns for the fretboard inlays.

Below is a slideshow of images showing the pickguard making process.