Headbone Phones
| Allan Shockley is the inventor of what he has coined "headbone phones". He states that the first prototype was made for the Oregon Country Fair in 1982 to cut out crowd noise for close listeners, and did not include phones. Instead, the listener would place a large gourd, connected to the hosing, on their head. Since many people had an aversion to wearing the gourd, Al went back to the drawing board and decided to use headphones in '83. |
| This is what the whole apparatus looks like. It is easily carried by coiling around one shoulder, leaving your didj carrying hand free. When didj is played for someone with the headphones on, they will experience swirls and spirals of sound dancing around in their head as the player moves the didj back and forth from funnel to funnel. This can add a whole new dimension to the enjoyment of the didj sound. |
| Oil funnels, normally used for cars, make good amplifiers to play into. Two 5 foot lengths of 1 1/2 inch sewer hosing make good sound transmitters. I used household silicone sealant as the glue for each connection, and duct tape to strengthen the bond at these junctures. You will find that the headbone phone seals are quite susceptible to torque applied by twisting the tubes. |
| In order to keep the funnels from being knocked away from the correct position while you play, a small piece of duct tape placed between the outer edges of the two funnels can be used to secure the funnels together. This keeps them oriented in your direction when the recipient fidgets with the hoses. |
| The type of headphones I used were mufflers for sport riflery. Al managed to find some old fashioned fully enclosed headphones at a second hand store. You will need to drill 1 1/2 inch holes - if that's the size hose you're using - into the sides of the headphones. Then, carefully insert the hosing and apply sealant around the junctures. After the sealant is dry, then reinforce with duct tape. This headphone juncture is susceptible to the slightest torque generated at the funnel end. |
| You can even enjoy the sound of your own didjeridu by placing the headphones on your own head, as Randy Graves of the California band Didginus is demonstrating here. |