For those tired of the standard guitar, bass and drums lineup, tonight's show at the Schlow Centre Region Library, 211 S. Allen St., will highlight more exotic fare.

"I'm using a device called the optobox, it sounds kind of like a marimba ... actually the brain out of that I got out of some Fisher-Price toy," Tim Kaiser, one of three performers, said of finding the parts to put his instrument together, shortly before mentioning a stenographer's keyboard he converted into a synthesizer.

And then there's Paul Metzger's 21-string banjo.

The three-artist concert will be held in the library's community room at 7 tonight.

Metzger, of St. Paul, Minn., will headline, playing banjo and guitar, both of which have been heavily modified. The banjo features extra sets of strings and is set up similarly to a sitar, which is a long-necked lute with a varying number of strings.

"I prefer instruments that are not precious or fancy or expensive," Metzger said. "I just feel at liberty to experiment on them. I think 'what if I drilled in here or added something here.' I don't feel like I'm ruining something, I just kind of go at it."

Metzger's most recent album, Deliverance, was released in October, and contains three banjo pieces, he said. Metzger said he doesn't listen to his own recordings, which are done in one live take, and focuses more on live improvisation.

Nathaniel Rasmussen, a Schlow computer systems administrator, said Metzger "definitely got extremely emphatic applause when he played here before."

Also on the bill is Kaiser, of Duluth, Minn., who Rasmussen said creates "analog sound devices, whether they're synthesizers or theremins or effects for guitar ... He makes instruments and performs them."

Kaiser said he began experimenting with his equipment around the time he got out of high school and was playing in a punk rock band.

"One of the things about punk rock is that you're broke, and your equipment sucks, so you're always having to fix things, and that's kind of how I learned a fair chunk of what I know about electronics, is always having to fix stuff," Kaiser said.

Rounding out the bill is Eric Carbonara, a guitarist whose new album of acoustic compositions, Exodus Bulldornadius, was just released.

"I was kind of questioning whether or not I could make interesting and good music with just a single acoustic instrument," Carbonara said. "I wanted to take away any obstacle between what I was feeling and what my hands could do."