Years ago, while working on an album, an idea flashed through my mind.  While searching for a way to personally generate a bass line in my own studio with something other than a synthesized keyboard sound or a stand-up bass it brilliantly occurred to me to build a hammer dulcimer with notes in the range of the bottom of a piano which would play just like a regular hammer dulcimer.  A couple hundred hours and thousands of dollars later it appeared.  Hummm, maybe not EVERY idea is a great one!  But it was extremely fun and educational – not all education is paid for at the university.