The earliest instrument I built was in 2004 or 2005. I inverted a cylindrical metal trash can, using the circular bottom plate as a drum head. I made a contact mic from a 1” speaker taken from a toy, wired in reverse. The speaker was attached directly to the “drum head” and the wires were spliced to a cable plugged into a guitar amp. There’s some heavy distortion created by this mic, as you can hear in the recording. I played the instrument with hands, brushes, and a butter knife and bass bow. This instrument had but a brief lifespan, returning to its former life as a trash can within a day or two. No photographic evidence exists of what I called the Awesomephone.
Played with hands.
Played with a butter knife and bass bow. The knife handle is held against the head with the blade extending beyond the rim. Sound is modulated by length of the “tongue,” position and speed of the bow, and position of the knife handle.
Played with wire brushes.