HexSpira

French maker of "HexSpira" didgeridoos

Who is Colas?

"I am a didgeridoo player, hooked on this mysterious instrument since we met in 2006. First a curiosity, then a passion and a way of life: the didgeridoo has accompanied and guided me all these years, through encounters and street shows.

Throughout my journey as a musician, I have made didgeridoos that helped me progress in my playing and in my understanding of the instrument. I started with the usual 'sandwich' method, which consists of hollowing out two pieces of wood and gluing them back together. Not satisfied with this method, I wanted to go further and created HexSpira didgeridoos, developing a new technique and a very different approach to making.

Why this hexagonal shape?

I make my didgeridoos by gluing together six wooden staves with chamfered edges, for a perfect fit. It is the profile of these staves that determines the inner geometry of the air column. The different sections of the instrument, wider, narrower or flared, are 'contained' in the shape of the staves. So the inner geometry appears when the staves are glued, with perfect precision, and it is this geometry that determines almost all the didgeridoo's characteristics in terms of key and playability.

This technique allows me to do two things:

• fine-tune the air column of each instrument to perfection, through successive trials, to achieve a perfect sound and playability;
• reproduce them identically thanks to making templates, so as to offer only perfectly finished instruments, without any flaws.

This geometric precision is inherent in the hexagonal assembly. With the 'sandwich' method, reaching a comparable level of precision takes much more care and time. That is why I can offer high-end didgeridoos at much lower prices than their traditionally made equivalents, making them accessible to as many people as possible.

Plywood, why?

Plywood is made of very thin layers of wood glued on top of each other, with the grain direction alternating. HexSpira didgeridoos are made from birch plywood, the top of the range of wood panels in terms of mechanical strength and density.

The cross structure of this material prevents any movement of the wood and, above all, makes cracking impossible. They are the only didgeridoos that offer both the warm sound of solid wood and a sturdiness usually found only in synthetic didgeridoos.

And what about the sound?

The sound of the didgeridoo is at the heart of my approach: it is what drives me and what I love! Between their hexagonal shape and their material, HexSpira didgeridoos are out of the ordinary in many ways, and it is fair to wonder whether the sound quality lives up to it. Over time I have become very demanding about the sound and characteristics of my didgeridoos. Today, the ones I make fully satisfy me as an experienced and demanding player. I'll let you judge for yourself, by listening to the recordings or coming to try them!" Colas