ya know, finding musical instruments used at random places can be kinda tough; most people selling them don't know or remember what they are or where they even came from. that poses a problem because when someone walks up and asks a price, the seller often prices according to the two things they do know: one, that the item is obviously unique and well-constructed, and therefore likely very expensive (at least originally), and two, that the buyer knows what it is and wants it. because of this, i often run into very cool instruments/effects/etc. that are selling for ridiculously high prices that i must regretfully leave behind.
today was luckily not one of those days. i found this Hand Clapper on a table with various power supplies, wires and tools. the lady selling was watching me as i noticed the HC-2 and casually picked it up. after looking at it with a hint of disdain (just a hint!) and some slight puzzlement (all part of the game, friends), i walked over and asked her price. she looked it over carefully, not once, but twice, and responded with "Eight". i too reexamined it and turned up my look of skepticism to about 2 on the dial as i countered with "i'll give you four". i think my bluff worked, but she wasn't completely sold on my proposed 50% discount. "Five", she snapped. i turned over the money and split.
now for the unit itself:
as evidenced in the pictures, it's really quite worse for the wear, and in need of some TLC. do note that the pictures are from after i made some effort to clean it up and remove a large quantity of unnecessary duct tape and its resultant residue. on the upside, it still has its original blue pad and rubber battery cover. on the downside, some genius decided to re-adhere the pad to the case upside down! i peeled it up slightly and sadly found that the reverse side (with the "BOSS" printing) is covered in old, dried adhesive. i can't decide if i should peel it the rest of the way off and try to clean it or just leave it alone. it's also missing the blue plastic inset cap from the middle knob, but that's not so bad.
unfortunately, it works about as nice as it looks. when running on a 9v battery, volume is quite low and it functions only intermittently. i plugged in an adequate power supply, which fixes the volume and sputtering, but then it hums very noisily no matter what i do. i opened it up and look at all of the connections. everything looks relatively clean and solid, considering its age, but i wish i knew what to look for in order to kill that hum! any ideas, anyone?
anyway, despite its problems, the clap itself is really nice! the Sens knob obviously affects the sensitivity; turn it all the way to MAX and tapping anywhere on the unit will result in a clap. i'm not completely sure why the second knob is called DRY, but to my ears, this knob appears to affect the pitch; if i turn it down, i get a short, tight clap. turning it up gives a lower and longer one. the Hall knob is for reverb, which actually sounds very good. overall, it's a good little clap, and it doesn't really sound cheesy (which i originally expected it to). even though it's making noise, i still plan to sample and likely distort a few hits from this and use them to augment some of my existing beats.
