Tony Levin - funk fingers

[the unrepentant]

Found a video on youtube of Tony Levin playing a stealth bongo with "funk fingers"
Gotta say he gets a sweet sound out of that with the overdrive!

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gulqD14vcMI"]YouTube - Tony Levin Using the Funk Fingers[/nomedia]

Thought you guys might like to see that, sorry if it's been posted already.
Also if anyone can tell me how to embed youtube videos i'll do that so it's easier to watch, or if a mod can do it.

 

[Frantic Slayer]

what are those things on his fingers, ive never seen that before...

 

[RobertB]

Yeah, that is a huge sound & a dramatic piece of music with a deep, rockin groove, too. Very cool.

 

[koogie2k]

what are those things on his fingers, ive never seen that before...

Drumsticks. Cut down and attached to his fingers with a velcro like strap. Really cool to watch him play with them. He stated he likes percussion beats and decided to try this.

 

[carpedebass]

Different.

 

[oli@bass]

A couple of years ago you could order them directly from Tony Levin's Road Diary, but they seem not to be available anymore...

 

[Moose308]

He used to build and sell them on the side.

I think he posted that it's too much of a hassle to make them for sale now. Which I can understand.

He posted the build recipe for those determined individuals who wanted to make their own. IIRC it involved buying some cheap drumsticks about the same diameter as your fingers (5A? Drummers keep old broken sticks for some reason, so getting a pre broken pair is usually easy). Cut the sticks to about 4-5 inches (whatever length works for you, usually they are not the same length, given the different length of your fingers). Then you have to rig up a method to fix them to your fingers. A Neoprene sleeve apparently works. Cutting the sticks longer and flattening the ends up to your second knuckle and then strapping them to your finger also seems to work. It's a DYI thing. Finally, I believe Tony dips the tips in Plasti-Dip, that stuff they coat wrench and plier handles in.

Really not that hard to make them. Stick. Cut. Strap. Play.

 

[tegzsa]

I made myself a set the other week. Not hard to do. The tricky bit is finding a way to fix the velcro to the drumstick (I drilled a couple of holes and used twine in the end). Also, in the absence of rubber dip for the tips, I used wide rubber bands (which works ok. More bands = more bounce).