From stadiums to garages, where there's music, there are polymers. Examples, you want? Let's take a look around this place and you'll see that just about everything you will ever destroy on stage is made of polymers!
This acoustic guitar has a body made from carbon fiber. But most guitars, acoustic and
electric, have bodies made from wood. Maple is especially good for
electric guitars, like the ones you see below. Maple and other woods are
forms of a natural polymer called cellulose. Of
course, the pick guards are made of a plastic called polystyrene.
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The amps have a lot of circuitry on the inside, and circuit boards are
often made of epoxy resins. Thanks to
polymers you can crank it up all the way to eleven! Then there are
speakers. The speakers in
the cabinet below have cones made of polypropylene.
The mesh over the speakers is made of nylon.
Your cords and cables wouldn't be much good without insulation, and that
insulation
can be made of plastics like polyethylene or from some kind of rubber such as polyisoprene.
Nylon! That's what the strings are made from on this classical guitar. No luau would be complete without ukulele music, and nylon is also in the strings of that ukulele James has in his hands.
This strap is made of nylon, too. This kind of strap is proper for an electric guitar. For acoustic guitars one should use a really ugly strap with a hippie-looking design woven into it. Such straps are often made from woven cotton, another form of cellulose, on top of a layer of leather.
Lest we forget, these picks are made of cellulose nitrate, a polymer often know as gun cotton. Maybe Jimi Hendrix wasn't setting those guitars on fire on purpose after all.
What else do you want to play? The keys and the housing of this keyboard are made of polystyrene. If it's drums you dig, the heads are made out of polyethylene.
Or you can play the ocarina. It's made of polystyrene. Ocarina means "sweet potato"
in Italian.
You couldn't have a fabulous light show on stage without the filters on these stage lights. They're made of things like polyester and cellulose acetate.
Accordions are cool, daddy, and you know it! From klezmer to cajun to
polka, the squeezebox is where it's at!..not to mention all the great
accordion magic of They Might Be Giants! Louie is showing us one with
keys and a whole lot of body parts made of polystyrene.
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