The table needs a bass. I have no idea how build that for a melodic bottom end; something anyone can plan, something that can survive Seattle weather like the other instruments can.

I knew exactly how to the xylophones and propane tank drum for the Jam Table because I had built them before. And I knew I could throw together some array of percussion instruments that might delight someone with a pair of sticks.

This was terra incognita.

I settled on trying to create a slide bass, using rubber ukulele-bass strings. The trick was A) getting a slide to work and B) making it loud enough.

I hacked together a tubular frame of 3.5-inch irrigation pipe, built a peg head from scrap oak (from our recent remodel), and a tailpiece out of a strip of scrap steel to anchor the bottom end of the strings.

The slide was a challenge – I used the steel roller from a cheese slicer, suspended under the strings that the musician would slide along a repurposed chunk of sliding-door track to raise or lower the notes. Sort of a redneck slide guitar affair..

I blew a good 10 days trying to figure it all out, but it worked.

And it sounded like absolute shit. Just awful.

It sounded even worse when I added a piezo pickup and ran it through an amplifier. No volume, but you could hear the slide VERY CLEARLY.

And besides, it would require amplification, which meant either installing a cheap amp and surrendering it to the elements or requiring musicians to bring their own amps.

Bah. Back to the drawing board.