Gahoon

The Gahoon was a cheaply-made musical instrument advertised in comics in the mid 20th century.

Construction

The Gahoon consists of a saxophone mouthpiece and reed inserted into one end of a tightly-coiled spring, like a screendoor or garage door tension spring. When the spring is completely straight, it creates a solid tube from the mouthpiece to the open end, and thus produces the lowest note that the instrument can create. When you bend the spring, the flex point creates an air opening, a higher note than the straight spring, allowing for a continuously variable note for as much of the length of the spring can be flexed. In a sense, it is a variation on the slide-whistle.

References

• <http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/oddmusic/msearch?query=gahoon&submit=Search&charset=ISO-8859-1> A lively Yahoo Groups discussion on the Gahoon