Unconventional Instruments Appreciation

About 20 years ago I was in a hotel in Switzerland, relaxing in the room, when I started hearing this music outside. It was a guy with an Alpenhorn, stood on a mound of grass about 15 feet high, with the horn reaching to the bottom.
What was amazing was he wasn't just playing bass tones, he played high, almost like a trumpet. Fast too - he was playing something from the classical trumpet repertoire, I forget what now.
As a trumpet player myself, I wanted one, but for some reason my wife wasn't keen! Would have been great for prog though

Sorry to resurrect this thread: just did a sax solo for a friend. He needed something for a track on his album.

Trouble was, the tune was in E minor. Nasty key for a tenor or alto. So I got out my 1926 Elkhart (made by Buescher) C melody sax. Basically, a sax pitched in C. No transposition. 

C Mels are a rare sight in the UK. Back during the saxophone craze of the 1920's, sax manufacturers started making instruments which would play along with a guitar or piano without transposition. The Wall Street Crash ended the sax craze, and production of c melody saxes stopped around 1930.

Theoretically, the C mel should have had the upper lyricism of an alto sax and the boom of a tenor, but it didn't. It had a tone all of its' own. Old mouthpieces and hard reeds made them sound "stuffy", but there are ways and means of making them sound a lot better. 

In the late 90's, modern firms such as Aquilasax realised there was a market for the old "C tenor" and a few manufacturers jumped on the bandwaggon again - you can get modern c mels now. They're pretty rare. I can't stand modern saxes, no character. So I'll be sticking with my 91 year old Elkhart. Really nice looking sax, plays like a dream. 

Yep, they sold their soul to Beelzebub and Rico reeds. ;-)

Also worthy of mention here are Yoch'ko Seffer's sound sculptures, which are played on some of his solo albums:

^^^^ I have witnessed Count Stakula playing the mighty Tubax at an Alamaailman Vasarat gig and it was awesome. The only other unusual instrument deployed that night was the theremin.

For sheer vibration though it's hard to beat Tokyo Chutei Iki, a band consisting of thirteen Japanese guys who ALL play baritone sax. First time I saw them was in quite a small room, and when those thirteen saxes hit a riff in unison I could feel it with my whole body.

Edited by Mascodagama - May 16 2017 at 06:49

Eb contrabass... yep, no fake.... 

Thanks for starting the thread, Guldbamsen. 

I'm a huge fan of unusual instruments. From Jazzophones - double belled trumpets - to Benedikt Eppelsheim's Tubax (look it up, scary) - to exotic Afghan rababs.... great. 

Here's my current absolute favourite - the Vegetable Orchestra. Anyone for broccoli ???

A bit of a bump just because I saw a Faust vid where they were playing power tools on stage. Also it'd be interesting to hear what kind of strange and bizarre instruments members of PA know of/play (perchance?).

Thanks for the link

I think I've found Jon Anderson's replacement in Yes. Take a look at this highly spirited guy from Namibia: