A new Kazoo!

First of all. It's beautiful. Just look at it. The bottom half is a dark wood, I'm assuming walnut, but I'm no wood expert. All the seams are perfectly matched, it's sanded to a lovely smoothness and from tip to tip, the workmanship is impeccable. 

The box it came in was full of the kinds of things you'd expect from a small craft maker. Some stickers, a WOODEN business card, a little keychain and a hand-written note thanking me for the purchase. I've bought kazoos from about four other companies and they've never said thank-you! Heck I've even tried to connect with a few of them with no response whatsoever. 

Sound-wise, it's very lovely and completely unique in my collection. I put a video of me performing a new song with it on Instagram last night if you want to hear it yourself. I find that volume-wise it's in the same category as my tin Schylling kazoos (my usual go-to). But unlike the Scyllings, the membrane used on this kazoo is tighter so you get a more even and consistent sound. You can't hear the membrane rattling against the kazoo cap so there's less of a "crinkling" sound. The kazoo came with an extra membrane and you can buy replacements online for next to nothing. 

And that brings up one of the advantages of this kazoo's design and something I was searching for that i couldn't find in other production kazoos. And that's the ability to replace or change the membrane. Most of the mass produced kazoos have the membranes press fit into the sound box during manufacturing. So if the membrane is damaged or the kazoo needs to be cleaned - just toss it and buy a new one. For how cheap kazoos are, it's not the end of the world but it doesn't really leave room to be sentimental. I'm looking forward to the opportunity this instrument gives me to experiment with different kinds of membranes. 

So is this PEI Kazoo Company offering perfect? No, not quite but it's close. I might even consider reaching out to them for some custom work in time because it's all pretty fixable. 

First, for the way I play and use my kazoo, the sound hole is too close to my mouth. I know you're thinking, "just play it the other way around." But it doesn't work well that way and the membrane doesn't activate in that direction. Maybe a looser membrane would work but as it comes stock, you can only play through the one end. This makes it hard to get the kazoo situated under my microphone when I play on stage. I use a harmonica harness to hold my kazoo while I play guitar and while it sits very nicely in the harness, it's very close to my face which adds to the challenge of working with a mic. I'm going to keep working on this though - there could be a solution! 

If there's any need to prove that this is a Canadian made kazoo, you only need to check out the nut and bolt that hold on the membrane cap. The bolt is fitted with a Robertson bit - there are few building materials more Canadian. But that nut and bolt don't hold the cap as securely as I like and in the couple of days I've had the instrument, that cap is constantly opening. There are some solutions like grabbing a locking nut, using two small nuts to bind or as I'm likely to do, wrap a rubber band around there. I use rubber bands on all of my kazoos to provide some friction so they stay at the right angle in my harmonica harness and this kazoo will need the same treatment. That rubber band can also serve to hold the cap in place. 

The only other observation I have is about the kazoo being made out of wood. Now, I bought this instrument because it was wood. I have plastic, aluminum and tin kazoos and I really wanted to hear what a wooden one would bring to the table. But when the wheels hit the road, the wood feels VERY different. Texture and weight-wise it's very different. I'm used to very light, smooth materials when I play so having even the smooth sanded texture of the PEI Kazoo was strnage. It's also got a very large wind channel so there's not the same kind of back pressure you feel from a tapering kazoo. I admit that when I took those first few hums, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to play it. But to be sure, it only lasted a moment before I did play it and found out how wonderful it was. 

Overall, I'm very happy I found the kazoo and I'm eager to play it for people. The folks at PEI Kazoo Company were very quick to interact with my Instagram reel and re-posted. So I'm confident that this will certainly turn into a relationship that I can build on. Maybe someday we'll see the PEI Kazoo Company Jeremy Signature kazoo. How crazy would that be?