Hunter and Casey, who have been friends since elementary school, just finished their junior year of school. Both play drums in the Wausau West band.

But recently the two students performed on a different type of percussion instrument: one completely built by hand and inspired by the Blue Man Group plus YouTube sensation Snubby J (real name: Kent Jenkins).

Casey explains how their pipe instrument works:

"We had a standard guitar tuner with a mic on it, and we would hit (a pipe) with a paddle and it would tell us what key we were on," said. "We wanted to always be flat, if anything, because sharp meant there's too little pipe, and it's hard to add pipe. You can always cut more."

To play the pipes, the boys invented their own drumstick/mallets, using a paint scraper and a trimmed paddle-ball paddle - the kind with the rubber ball attached via string - covered with a cut-up camping pad.

Tim Fetting, lead instructor at EGL Academy, says the entire creation is special:

"I was impressed by the size, the magnitude, the engineering behind the way it was constructed and the sound quality with how it was tuned. It is very impressive."

Impressive enough to earn an A, and for a compliment from Snubby J.