Mike Grosso: 30 Days of Weird Instruments, Day 30 -- the Singing Tesla Coil

Our final weird instrument has many nicknames, my favorite being the Zeusaphone, as in the Greek God, Zeus.

The Singing Tesla Coil is a solid state Tesla coil that's been altered to make analog synth sounds and emit sparks of electricity based on the musical data it receives. MIDI data is sent in, converted to what's called a Pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal, which is then used to tell the Tesla coil what to do.

In simpler terms, it's a device that creates electrical pulses in sync with music. Imagine a musical performance where electricity is an audio-visual aspect of the experience.

Pay your respects to the people who made/make these things -- it takes a lot of talent and intelligence to pull this off.

The singing Tesla coil made its national television debut when the band ArcAttack performed on America's Got Talent.

That marks the finish line for 30 DAYS OF WEIRD INSTRUMENTS! I hope you've enjoyed this blog series half as much as I've enjoyed researching and writing it. I'm glad to have had you with me on this journey.

Please feel free to comment with additional weird instruments you've discovered, or send an email to me@mikegrossoauthor.com with your thoughts. I've also included the full list of posts for all 30 instruments below.

Thank you for reading!

Purchase I AM DRUMS!

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