What instruments do you have?

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: EuGene
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 06:48 PM

Wow! What a collection of instruments folks on here have . . .so, I guess I can fit in:

2 harpsichords, mountain dulcimer, balalaika, Vietnamese dan nhi, Eb clarinet, 5 Bb clarinets, C clarinet, Db clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, bassoon, 2 C piccolos, C flute, Eb alto horn, Eb/F convertable horn, Eb fleugelhorn, shepherd's crook trumpet, rotary valve cornet, 2 trombones, french horn, tuba, snare drum, bass drum, various recorders and penny whistles, and a trunk full of percussion noise makers.

I'm in a community band, and most of the band instruments I own are used as temporary loaners to band members until they can get their own instrument. I will probably keep the harpsichords, stringed instruments, clarinets, oboe, and bassoon and donate all the rest to the band since they are used only within the community band anyway. Eu

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Banjiman
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 10:51 AM

Reading this made me think, we have:

2 x Acoustic Guitars
1 x Electro acoustic guitar
1 x Mandolin
2 x 5 string banjos
1 x Zither Banjeurine
1 x Banjola
3 x Fiddles
3 x Accordions (2 piano and 1 button key)
1 x Piano
At least 6 x whistles
2 x Bodhran
1 x Recorder
1 octarine (or is that a fruit?)
Various shaky and bangy things

Less than the average anyway looking at above posts

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:17 AM

Ten whistles, one ocarina, one strumstick. seven harmonicas, eight mouth organs(Including a Bass and a vignetta).

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:42 AM

Around the house we have:

Technics piano, usually with Birman cat hiding behind music shelf
Casio keyboard
Ephiphone SG copy - rather nice actually!
Beaten up Squier Telecaster with Ozzy emblems (ohmigawd)
That Yamaha acoustic that everybody in the world owns
Hungarian violin, nice tone, and LOUD.
Inexpensive Spanish classical guitar
Ocarina
Clangers wheedly whoppin' noise maker
Several of those little birds you fill with water and blow, hawked by Spanish market traders.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 11:44 AM

Sorry, I know it's EPIPHONE - senior moment.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 12:17 PM

and either forgotten in my last post or added since (I'm one of the GUESTs up there):

a Hopf G sopranino recorder
three more Italian-type ocarinas
a C melody sax
a B flat Boehm clarinet and a C simple-system clarinet
a middling sized davul
a very large riq
a pair of rattly seed pods

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Sugwash
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 02:17 PM

4 mandolins (1 a 5 course)
4 fiddles
2 guitars
1 cittern
1 guitar/bouzouki
2 solid bodied octave mandolins
2 plectrum guitars (like a tenor guitar but longer scale)
1 tenor banjo (like a plectrum banjo but shorter)
1 banjo ukulele
1 banjo mandolin
1 hurdy-gurdy
1 melodeon
1 Anglo concertina
half a dozen whistles
5 mouth organs
1 keyboard
1 bass guitar
1 set Northumbrian smallpipes
1 swanee whistle
1 fife
1 bandurria
1 mandola...

...and one very understanding wife.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: cookster
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 02:24 PM

1 acoustic guitar
1 trombone
1 trumpet
1 flute
1 recorder
1 harmonica
1 electric keyboard
1 zylophone

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: cookster
Date: 04 Jul 07 - 02:26 PM

One or more from each instrument family.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 10:49 AM

Lots.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 11:23 AM

I have everything I need but I'll never have everything I want.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 07:49 PM

An acoustic guitar, a bunch of harmonicas, bongo drums, ans I guess that's all.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 05 Jul 07 - 08:47 PM

A Musical Instrument Ditty


Jew's harps I have plenty,
And mouth-harps nearly 20,
A banjo-uke, a wooden uke,
And another one beside.
Guitars in numbers countless,
Amplified and not-so, doubtless,
Banjos of such quality it's
Impossible to hide.

Two dulcimers (that's overkill),
And autoharps (oh, there's a thrill),
Two fiddles and three mandolins, and an
Electric bass to boot.
Banjo-guitar and mandolin,
I think I'm getting near the end;
Not to mention cases, strings and straps --
Oh, what a hoot.



Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: EuGene
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 12:32 AM

Hey Bob! About that folk song, was it called "Jack of All Timbres"?

Do you have the melody for it?

Eu

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: nickp
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 05:16 AM

Far too many - mainly mandolins.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: GUEST,Rich (bodhránaí gan cookie)
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 12:12 PM

If I had to guess I'd say Bob's song is set to the Rambling Rover by Andy Stewart.

My list would include

1 bodhrán (Albert Alphonso)
1 student set of tabla
1 much better dahina (treble drum of tabla) pitched to "D" bought from my guruji
2 kanjiras
1 pandeiro
a couple jaw harps (Is Jew's Harp considered an ethnic slur?)
a few sets of bones, both wood and bone
A couple of tongue drums
2 triangles
various bells and shakers
1 darbukka
a few nondiscript frame drums
1 berimbau
3 washboards; 2 metal, one glass
1 udu
1 small gong
1 Earth Drum (paper drum made from recycled blue jeans)
1 set of high hat cymbals
1 Ice Bell (small high sustain cymbal)
1 vibra slap
1 thunder tube (spring drum)
1 flex-a-tone

and still no "real instruments"

Rich

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:44 PM

Seems to me that I'm a poor one only owing

-1 12-string guitar ( Guild, F312-Special)
-1 4-string banjo ( Baldwin Ode)
1 Bandoneon from 1913

But that's enough!

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: GUEST,Frug updated
Date: 07 Jul 07 - 11:11 AM

continued from previous list and added in the last 2 years

.................Piano
Gibson Les Paul
Sitar
Elect/acoustic mandolin
and another bouzouki - modified Tanglewood guitar with full size body and 3/4 neck and modified bridge and nut.

Still got everything else as above including the large overdraft !!

Frank

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 07 Jul 07 - 08:28 PM

Actually, my song wasn't specifically set to any song, but to the chorus of a Minstrel era song called, "Nothing to Wear," (the tune to which is unknown to me) where the woman in the chorus has

Bonnets she had plenty, and shawls could count by twenty,
Still her refrain, as she walked the city fair,
Was "I am tired of this duster, it puts me in a fluster
It's really too provoking; I've nothing to wear!"

It may well scan to the tune mentioned above, "Rambling Rover," but it was what I had in mind, somehow, when I started my list. I find I submitted a response back in the early days of this thread, but my recent response started as a list of my guitars and banjos, then I said, "Jew's harps I have in plenty," and my memory melded with my muse (how's that for alliteration?) and the lyric formed itself. I erased all the original listed instrument lines and incorporated them into the ditty.


Songbob

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: philgarringer
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 03:53 PM

A quick inventory of my conservatory reveals:

1 McNally Grand Strumstick
1 acoustic dreadnaught guitar (Alvarez)
1 acoustic travel guitar (Washburn)
1 semi-hollow electric guitar (Epiphone Dot)
1 accursed acoustic travel guitar with no strings, and damnation to all of those involved in the production and sale of the infernal thing (except the poor Chinese slave children in the camp where it was made)
3 tinwhistles
1 fife (never DID learn to play that...)
1 recorder (ditto)
1 jew's harp (Although I haven't seen that in a while. It's probably buried in the pile on my desk)

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Midchuck
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 04:55 PM

OK. You asked.

Acoustic Guitars:

1) 2003 Mario Proulx "OM-D." Englemann Spruce top (amberburst); Black Walnut back, sides and neck.

2) 2001 Froggy Bottom F-12 (0000 size, 12 frets to body, wide neck slothead. The guitar that Martin should build and won't.) Sitka Spruce top, Indian RW back and sides.

3) 1996 Collings 000-2H, Sitka/Indian. eBay purchase May, 2002. My usual "road" guitar for trio gigs.

4) Alvarez-Yairi Jumbo Baritone Acoustic (tuned B-to-b). New this past winter.

5) Martin SWM-GT. 0000 size, wide neck, Cherry back and sides; Sitka top (all solid woods).

6) Martin M-16GT. About a 2002, I believe. Sitka/Mahogany. $800. (Now living with my son in Bozeman. This largely bypasses the whole guitars-on-planes hassle.)

7) CA Acoustic "Legacy" Dreadnought. Purchased on eBay on a gamble. (Appears, from correspondence with the company, to be a very early prototype. It has an ebony fingerboard, and most of the CA's don't have any wood in them at all. It has a Schlecter pickup system, and CA says they only installed them in a few prototypes, not in any production guitars.)

8) Martin 000-X1. Standard Martin 14-fret 000 (but long scale) with linoleum back and sides and solid spruce top. Also a vastly better guitar than it has any right to be.

9) Epiphone "Masterbilt" EF-500R. Another recent eBay purchase.

10) Guild GAD-30R. Another recent eBay purchase.

11) "No-name" jumbo 7-string. Sitka and Indian; I think the back and sides are laminates. Now for sale if anyone's interested.

12) 1970s Guild D25M that I keep in Bozeman, Mt., unless my son has sold it - I told him to go ahead and do so if he could.

My wife owns a 1965 Martin 0-18, five or six fiddles (five here and one in Bozeman, I think), a Knilling "Jazz Bass" (thin-bodied upright bass, works as an acoustic in the living room or amplified for gigs), an autoharp, a hammered dulcimer, and a Guild acoustic bass guitar. We jointly own a Freshwater octave mandolin that needs some work. So she doesn't hassle me too much.

The reason there's so many is that we set aside our income from gigs for pure luxury spending, but most luxuries I might want depreciate too fast to justify spending money on them. So the default is spending it on instruments, which are like money in the bank but more fun.

Peter

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 06:00 PM

Times now ain't like they used ta be.

Right now I have ten jewsharps and a nose flute. Also, a mountain dulcimer I made from a Star Wars lunchbox----with a rubber chicken inside. The more things change, the more they get different!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: EuGene
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 10:27 AM

Art:

I just gotta get you to send me the plans for that lunchbox mountain dulcimer . . . I have one of those old lunchboxes around here somewhere with Barney Google & Sparkplug on it. That lunchbox should give the dulcimer a truely fantastic hillbilly twang! Great for Ozarks mountain folk songs.

Eu

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Mike Miller
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 05:42 PM

I'm gonna show this thread to my wife. She swears I have more instruments than any sane person could own, but some of you guys put me to shame. To tell the truth, I have no idea how many I have. Oh, I could root around the house and get a rough idea but I am hampered by sciatica and indolence. Besides, I need lots of guitars, mandolins, tenor banjos, ukes and 5 string banjos in case a student needs a loaner. Of course, this doesn't explain why I need a jazz guitar, an autoharp, a potpouri of percussion and a half dozen amps.
Hey, if she can't take a joke.....

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 06:19 PM

Peter (Midchuck),

If I'm not mistaken ~ that is, if I'm not confusing you with another Peter with another pseudonym ~ didn't you used to own one of those "lawsuit Takamines" that looked too much like a Martin D-18?

If so, I'm sorry you let it go. I've often fantasized about taking it off your hands someday, if the price was right-enough and I happened to be traveling in the North Country at a time that I had some disposable income available.

I only own the one instrument, a real D-18, vintage 1969. I've considered having a pickup installed, and at least one of our local technicians refuses to "desecrate" my lovely and valuable instrument in such a way. He advises me to just buy another cheaper guitar, either an electric-acoustic (from his stock, of course) or a straight acoustic into which he would more willingly install an under-saddle pickup.

Sure, it's just one man's opinion, but I find his argument at least somewhat persuasive. A nice "fake" D-18 with a pickup in it would be an interesting option for me. I guess I won't be getting one from you now, however.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 07:04 PM

Peter (Midchuck),

If I'm not mistaken ~ that is, if I'm not confusing you with another Peter with another pseudonym ~ didn't you used to own one of those "lawsuit Takamines" that looked too much like a Martin D-18?

Yep, I've had a couple or three of them. Gradually got away from dreads, (hurts to play them very long when you're short, old, and have a little beer gut), and really I prefer the 1 3/4" (or wider) at nut neck. So I let them go. They do have a great sound for the price, at least the solid-top ones. My son still has one that he prefers to some more expensive ones that he has, for most purposes.

I only own the one instrument, a real D-18, vintage 1969. I've considered having a pickup installed, and at least one of our local technicians refuses to "desecrate" my lovely and valuable instrument in such a way. He advises me to just buy another cheaper guitar, either an electric-acoustic (from his stock, of course) or a straight acoustic into which he would more willingly install an under-saddle pickup.

I agree with him. In a really good acoustic setting, it's better to mic your guitar. In a not-so-good acoustic setting (read "bar") plugging in is the way to go, it cuts through the crowd noise better. But the sound isn't going to be as good in any event, and no one hearing you is going to be all that critical, so it's better to use an el cheapo for that purpose.

Unless you can find a nice old Guild D-25 or such as that.

Peter.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 02:13 PM

Thanks, Peter.

I like the sound of playing through a mic, but I think I would enjoy being able to move my arms/torso/guitar a bit more freely, which would be an important benefit of "plugging in." I find it easy enough to keep my mouth at the proper distance from the one mic ~ when singing ~ but I do occasionally have trouble keeping the guitar soundhole in just the right spot in relation to the second mic. I've even, on occasion, bumped into the guitar mic, actually touched it with strings of topwood, which makes an embarrassing noise, to say the least.

Also, I prefer to stand rather than sit when performing, if only as a way to keep my internal air-column open and unrestricted from diaphragm to lips; if I were a "sitter," I would probably find it easier to hold the guitar still.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 05:05 PM

I have my voice.

Subject: RE: What instruments do you have?
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Jul 07 - 09:59 PM

I have an electronic keyboard, far better than I deserve. A dear friend gave it to me. I also have a little of my voice left.