Theres nothing me and the boyfriend like more than playing with world instruments. By world instruments I mean something besides your standard 5-piece American band. We regularly check this stuff out. Check out literally, actually, the story behind this post started with a trip to the library. There I went to the music section, found some books on making musical instruments, and brought them home. These type of things excite him. 

Anyways, he decided to make something from the book, called a Rumba Box. With some research I've discovered that this isn't a common name for it, and the closest instrument I've found is the Mbira, on Wikipedia.  

Now that hes halfway done with it, I took some pictures of our progress.

The basic idea, I've found is a thumb piano. This is a big bass version of that. It requires wood, music wire, a bridge, and some patience.

The crescent moon you see is the necessary sound hole. The metal strips in the middle are the two layer bridge, similiar to a piano with flats and sharps.

The next steps are to stain it, decorate it, and get the music wire on it and tuned. We'll keep you posted. We're quite excited. I don't think my boyfriend has thought about it WHERE we're going to put it, though…..