wood bugle cube by henry hanson

Wood Bugle Cube by henry hanson

Following his Concrete Cube Trumpet project, designer Henry Hanson returns with the Wood Bugle Cube, created as a fully functional brass musical instrument without looking like one. ‘While the shape and material do not evoke a musical instrument in any way, both function and sound are nearly indistinguishable from a traditional bugle,’ shares Hanson.

building the instrument from 3D cad model templates

Henry Hanson (see more here) describes the Wood Bugle Cube as ‘an exercise in transferring a complicated volume with over-closures from a 3D drawing to a new medium‘. Indeed, the designer used 20 layers of 9 mm thick birch plywood, carved individually following templates generated from a CAD model that represents the inside of a bugle.

Specifically, he coiled the 3D model to fit within the wooden cube before slicing it to make a series of 2D templates representing the tube cross-sections on each side of the wooden pieces. Those sections ultimately served as guiding lines for carving.

The final sanding was done in adjacent layer pairs to keep the interfaces smooth. Hanson then sealed the inner tube wall and bonded each layer sequentially with an extra coat of sealant to improve moisture resistance. The result is a fully functional brass instrument made of wood!

‘In a ‘brass’ instrument, the main sound comes from vibrations at the lips and in the air, not from the material itself. The material and construction are only responsible for the warmth, brightness, timbre, and other fine characteristics. Moreover, the instrument will generally still sound like a trumpet or bugle if the tube length and diameter are maintained. Compared to the concrete cube, or a standard brass version, this wooden version sounds warmer and softer,’ writes Hanson.