Unconventional Instruments Appreciation
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Other music related lounges
Forum Name: Tech Talk
Forum Description: Discuss musical instruments, equipment, hi-fi, speakers, vinyl, gadgets,etc.
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=93708
Printed Date: November 23 2024 at 09:01
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Topic: Unconventional Instruments Appreciation
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Subject: Unconventional Instruments Appreciation
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 07:35
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I have a thing for strange instruments - be that percussion, reeds, synths, string instruments, homemade contraptions and the list literally goes on and on... Some instruments even seem to have the ability to play every other instrument in the world. I mean just take a look at this bad-ass thing called the Eigen harp  Anyhoo - this thread is about the weird and eccentric music instruments out there, and I would love to see what you guys can bring to the table. We may even have some players out there who play water tuba, or some other wonderfully bizarre thing  I'll leave you with the fabulous sauerkraut synth: ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Replies:
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 07:43
Gotta love the Mbira too I think it sounds beautiful: ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Tuzvihar
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 08:25
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How 'bout hang drum? ------------- "Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent." Charles Bukowski |
Posted By: Tuzvihar
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 08:29
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy_gurdy" rel="nofollow - Hurdy gurdy ------------- "Music is much like f**king, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent." Charles Bukowski |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 08:46
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My band used to use an anglegrinder & circular saw blades, we also simultaneously had things like mandolin, bodhran, shakuhachi, and so froth. These days we've stopped using anglegrinders & circular saw blades, and instead we have http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonm1965/sets/72157613612763618/" rel="nofollow - homemade noise toys ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 15:20
Yes, I love these things! I'd very much like to get my hands on one of em. I am pretty good with my fingers, and I just love the small sneaky tricks you can do with it. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Tuzvihar wrote:Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 15:22
Anglegrinder n saw blades? I'd definitely like to hear that ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 15:26
Wow I've never heard about this man before, but I seriously need to go find an album after having seen this vid! PA material? Who cares - it's wonderfully strange. Just take a look at the instruments involved: ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: May 27 2013 at 03:52
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Cool! What about Pat Metheny's Orchestrion? I'm just thinking I should add it to my Instruments Blog  |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: May 27 2013 at 10:46
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I really like Jordan rudess's fingerboard continuum and his guitar/keyboard hybrid he has going on the last few years. ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: May 27 2013 at 12:36
Yeah, I guess that's the Marcodi Harpejii
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Posted By: Triceratopsoil
Date Posted: May 27 2013 at 16:48
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Garbage cans a la Sleepytime Gorilla Museum edit: a lot of the other homemade sh*t they use too |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: May 28 2013 at 00:16
------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 03:34
Oh like Slipknot? ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 03:36
Nice, thanks Gerard  and sorry for stealing your mojo man - I didn't realize you already had a blog covering strange instruments  ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 03:39
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Ever wish you could play the whale? Look no further - the hydrocordion makes your dreams come true: ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 05:39
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I think I've found Jon Anderson's replacement in Yes. Take a look at this highly spirited guy from Namibia: And then there's this, which I can't quite explain. Kuala Lumpur airport obviously keeps it pretty fresh in regards to gigs: ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 07:35
No worries, my blog is about instruments frequently used in prog in general, not particularly strange ones, so this thread still makes perfect sense http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=91772&PID=4710387#4710387" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=91772&PID=4710387#4710387 |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 07:38
Thanks for the link ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: HemispheresOfXanadu
Date Posted: May 29 2013 at 22:20
Someone had to post this one sooner or later: |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: April 04 2017 at 13:39
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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?). ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Larkstongue41
Date Posted: April 18 2017 at 22:09
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Thought you guys might find this as funny as I did ------------- "Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar." |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:25
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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 ??? ------------- |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:27
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PS This takes some believing, but.... well, I'll have a Tubax and an Eb contrabass sax, please. http://www.eppelsheim.com/en/" rel="nofollow - http://www.eppelsheim.com/en/ ------------- |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:28
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Eb contrabass... yep, no fake.... ------------- |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:31
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And let's go lower. This is unbelievable. Adolph sax designed, but never made one of these..... the J'elle Stainer sub-contrabass sax. ------------- |
Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:44
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^^^^ 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. |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 06:57
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Fantastic. I had a baritone for a short while - which I regret selling. Bb Sioma Paris, made about 1935, Otto Link metal mouthpiece. Fantastic to play. They're actually one of the easier members of the sax family to play. Soprano is by far the most difficult due to the embouchere. I also have problems with them sliding out of my fat hands. ------------- |
Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 07:07
Also worthy of mention here are Yoch'ko Seffer's sound sculptures, which are played on some of his solo albums:
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Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 07:20
Nice. I do love the sound of the baritone. Pepper Adams was great on that horn. Not a sax player myself but I always heard it was very hard to get a consistently good tone on soprano. Coltrane and Wayne Shorter always seemed to manage OK though. |
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 07:41
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Yep, they sold their soul to Beelzebub and Rico reeds. ;-) ------------- |
Posted By: Vompatti
Date Posted: May 16 2017 at 08:22
Posted By: Davesax1965
Date Posted: August 13 2017 at 08:09
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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.  ------------- |
Posted By: Enchlore
Date Posted: August 14 2017 at 20:35
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No love for the theremin? Also check out this guy's instruments, the Marble Machine and the Modulin: ------------- If you like King Crimson, come over to the KC Discord server! https://discord.gg/6AYBxBD |
Posted By: timbo
Date Posted: August 17 2017 at 12:34
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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
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