The folgerphone (sometimes Folgerphone) is a wind instrument (or aerophone), classifiable as a woodwind rather than brass instrument despite being made of metal, because it has a reed (cf. saxophone). It is a modern experimental instrument, using an alto sax mouthpiece, with copper tubing and a coffee can (the name is a reference to Folger's, a common brand of canned coffee). It is not commercially produced, but constructed by musicians, and need not use a genuine coffee can, but any metallic sounding box. Although using sax parts, it is a cylindrical bore instrument, and thus part of the clarinet family.
The instrument was invented by Nolan Hatcher and Craig Nutt,[1] at least as early as 1979, when it was used on their duet album Dinosaur Time.[2] It has also been used in recorded experimental and jazz works by others, such as Robert Horton's band Plateau (not to be confused with the Skinny Puppy side-project platEAU), as on the 1990 Arrhythmia compilation CD.