Who will inherit your instruments?

Subject: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 11:58 PM

A musician friend of mine died recently. He owned and played several rare and precious instruments - an antique set of smallpipes, a set of halflongs and a modern 16 key set, all in excellent playing order.
I was wondering what his family will do with these treasures (no, I don't wish to have them) and then I got to thinking, what will happen to mine when I go? (I'm not planning on leaving just yet but it'll happen one day.)
There's no-one in my family who is likely to follow in my footsteps, so will they just be sold? I don't think I want them to go to just anyone.
Ideally, it would be nice if my teenage daughter were to carry on with my Northumbrian pipes, but I know she doesn't like them and nor does she have the necessary patience to master them.
They could go in a museum but then the leather bits would just go hard and brittle, and an instrument unplayed is like a song that's unsung. That's just a waste.
They're not a Stradivarius or even a Martin but there's a lot of 'me' in them - I've had them since 1972.
It occurred to me that I could do as MacPherson did -

He took his fiddle in both his hands
And he broke it o'er a stone,
Saying, "There's no-one here shall play on thee
When I am dead and gone."

But that would be a shame.
And then there's my Oscar Schmit autoharp, my mountain dulcimer, my accordion, my Ray Durrand guitar, the Hohner lute (guitar strung), the banjo, the bodhran, etc., etc.
Have any other mudcatters thought about who you will leave your precious instuments to, when you no longer need them?
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: open mike
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:11 AM

good question...as kat laughing has been able to be the recipient of her father's fiddle this has started me thinking about this too.
I believe a "last will and testament" is official enough if signed by yourself and perhas another witness...there are forms at the stationery store which can be used for legal purposes...it is important that someone knows your wishes...and so keep this piece of paper somwhere safe and tell next of kin where to find it! and hope that there is an appropriate person to receive the musical instruments, etc. i know some families have sold instruments...such as johnny cash's to cover debts, etc. I have known of property that kids inherited and they did not want it...jsut the money it could bring...

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Amos
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 01:49 AM

Barky has recently become as good a guitar player as any folky could hope to be for her age, so I have no problem leaving mine to her. After that it is up to her.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 07:08 AM

Knowing Herself, a bonfire.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 10:02 AM

Woodworms.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 10:47 AM

I suppose that's one of the few plusses about dying. You don't have to worry about stuff like that any more, or anything else really - not when you're dead.

Why not leave your instruments to a shop like hobgoblin - frequented by folkies and ask them to make a small donation to a charity of your choice. Or maybe ask a fellow mudcatter to auction them on mudcat .....

More constructive ideas (I hope) than MacPherson had, mind you he didn't have Hobgoblin or Mudcat.........

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: grumpy al
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 10:58 AM

don't care as long as they are still played

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:13 PM

I don't particularly care about my guitar, a Montana classical guitar that, while it's all right, is of no particular distinction.

My banjo, however, is another thing. It's technically an 11 inch Ramsey Special, but is more customized than that description implies, having been custom made to my order in 1999. The wall of the pot is thicker than Mike Ramsey normally makes his Specials, and it has no tone ring. It's effectively all maple, with ebony fingerboard and bubinga trim, and at the 12th fret is inlaid the banjo's name, OLGA, in mother of pearl.

The history/reason for the name OLGA I've given in other threads. It's a sort of family in-group joke.

Now, this is not an extremely valuable instrument, having cost me about $850 four years ago, but it is a fine piece of work by a recognized master banjo maker, with a wonderful tone. I'd hate to see it wasted. Well, I guess I wouldn't see it wasted, but I hate the thought prospectively.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:18 PM

Nobody yet has said in so many words 'they should go to your protege'. Especially pipes which were always handed down one piper to another.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:19 PM

Maybe a Mudcat Foundation could be set up to properly distribute spare legacy instruments, recordings, books and other treasures amongst the virtuous and needy.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:23 PM

I suppose the problem with that is that if the protege's any good, he will have sorted himself out a decent instrument. Its a personal thing, some of my heroes play instruments that I wouldn't give houseroom to.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:27 PM

Hell, all the best instruments will eventually end up in the hands of billionaire collectors who will consider them too valuable to be played. They'll end up hermetically sealed in lucite and sequestered away in exclusive collections... an artificially tweaked economy surrounding them to maintain and increase their value as investments. There'll be no decent wood left on the planet to make more and music will be created by computers anyway. Laws will be passed to punish those found hiding in secret enclaves playing real instruments. Legends and fables will grow up around giants of the past who could tease enchanting sounds out creations made of wood, leather and primitive metals, the technology to create and play these things lost in the misty, smoggy, golden past. Soon people will doubt the veracity of those stories and imagine the few preserved instruments to be fetish objects never really meant to be functional. And then the sun will wink out of existence. Sweet dreams, kiddies.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:49 PM

Cluin...LMAO...well-imaged! Loved your first idea, too!

Good stories about The Moving Guitar, including a small bit about the Clan of Caressers in THIS THREAD. Enjoy!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 12:56 PM

Hmmm. Well, that's hard to say. Maybe I'll bequeath them to the Orillia Folk Society, if it's still around when I make the trip.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 01:17 PM

*shakes head*

What? Where am I? Did I say something? I think I was dreaming... oh no, not again!

Forget anything I may have said, folks. That happens sometimes. It doesn't mean anything. Really...

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 01:45 PM

Two kids, five mandolins, one French Horn, two guitars and a baby grand piano...the maths doesn't work! But there again, I don't plan to shuffle off for a while yet, so maybe I should just buy a few more instruments first, and even things up slightly...

epn

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 05:49 PM

A silver, vertically tuned, C.G. Conn trumpet, serial number 233131, made in Elkhart, Indiana in 1929.

I truly can't imagine who, besides myself, would want it.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 07:44 PM

Manitas has willed his melodeons to Cecil Sharp House. I say, why wait until you're dead..... why not take them round now?

I've not got enough to worry about. My recorders will probably be kept by Limpit and my spoons will get added to the cutlery drawer so that every time someone uses one for soup, they will complain about the bend in the handle and the flat bit in the bowl.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 07:48 PM

I would like to leave my inflatable Hillary Clinton doll to Brucie...If I ever succeed in getting one! They're scarcer than hen's teeth at this point.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 10:04 PM

I gave away my fife and my tin whistle, because I certainly wasn't making any headway on them. I also gave away my epees, but now I need them back (my jacket came!), so if my brother ever sends my epees and I buy a 3-weapon mask I'm all set again (I use welding gloves, because they're cheaper than actual fencing gloves and you get two of them). I gave my electronic keyboard to my mother-in-law so that she could learn to play, which she most likely hasn't.

Maybe I'll buy a bugle, just to annoy the neighbors.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Dec 04 - 11:35 PM

I hear those epees can really sing if wielded by a deft hand.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 12:12 AM

Now that trying to play has become too damn frustrating, I have given my 9-string Martin D-76 guitar to our son Chris. I also gave him a great old Vega Tubaphone 5-string banjo and a Saga 5-string banjo I built from a kit. I've kept one Bart Reiter Whyte Lady type 5-string banjo. I mess around with it only in an open-G tuning these days.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Dec 04 - 06:24 AM

I have still not yet decided to whom I should bequeath my 9-string Smegma archtop...

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Bugsy
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 02:36 AM

My son gets all my Guitars - He can hardly wait!


Cheers'


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Dewey
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:04 AM

My creditors.

Dewey

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: 42
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:10 AM

Ever think of donating them to an organization along the lines of www.artscancircle.ca.

They've begun some important work in native communities in Canada...replacing gas-sniffers bags with harmonicas and other donated instruments.

Check it out.


jen

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 07:55 AM

A certain Canadian in Moncton N.B will get my Taylor, but since Rick Fielding passed, I don't have plans for the Apollonio 12 string.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: mooman
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:14 AM

My daughter I think as she has shown an interest in learning all of them at one time or another over the years ansd I think she would value them.

weelittledrummer, you must have had better experiences with Hobgoblin than me...I would not leave them my toenail clippings.

Peace

moo

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Cluin
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 09:34 AM

Little Hawk, you can take that one with ya.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Vixen
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 10:24 AM

Having read this entire thread, and not being able to figure out why it's "BS", since it does have musical implications, I've turned my mind to the actual topic...

Now, I'm not exactly sure where I'll end up when I'm gone--I'm aiming to head "back to the mountain" but just in case there are other options, I think I'd like to take my instruments with me.

Consider--except for those of us who are already harpists, who wants to spend eternity learning ANOTHER instrument? One can only speculate, of course, but it may be that heaven is reserved only for the singers and harpists (and occasional trumpeters) of divine caliber. Hell, therefore, may be the destination for those of us who forget words, miss notes, drift off pitch, and fail to practice enough to become divine musicians.

Consequently, if I'm going to spend eternity doing *something* I'd rather spend it playing instruments with which I am passingly familiear, which might up my chances of being in a less unpleasant circle of the nether world.

V, contemplating the divine musical tragicomedy

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 12:02 PM

I'm just a two bit picker
Goin from town to town
Ain't nobody ta miss me
When I ain't around
One day it will be over
So I just got to say
You can have my old guitar
Only if you can play

Play a song for my momma
Play one for my dad
Take care of my guitar
It's the best friend I had

I'm just a two bit picker
No spotlight for me
Playing on the corner
For drinkin money
Someday there'll be
Another pine box for me
So you can have my first love
If you'll love her for me

Play a song for this old soul
Play one that ain't to sad
Take care of my guitar
It's the best friend I had

And when your time is come
Won't you do the same
We'll live on in her music
Like an eternal flame
Find another picker
And just hand her down
And go on to eternity
While they play another round

They'll play a song for you
And then play one for me
They'll love her like we did
In perfect harmony

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 12:06 PM

If any of the children show signs of wanting to play then they will get the instruments. Otherwise they can be sold but hopefully they would then be bought by someone who will play them. There is always the chance that if the kids don't play the grandkids will - Geoff discovered the five string banjo when he found his grandfathers old one in the attic. If it hadn't have been kept just think of the difference it would have made!

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Midchuck
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 01:11 PM

Fortunately, my kids both play, so I can leave all the guitars to them.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to specify who gets which ones. They'll have to work that out for themselves.

Fortunately, I won't be there when they attempt to agree.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 02:18 PM

Midchuck,

No holds barred, three falls?

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 05:31 PM

Being of sound mind and body I do solemly bequeath the following:
To my son Sam my Tanglewood 12 string, my Autoharp, my Ozark Bouzouki, my Windsor banjo (1920) my Dulcimer and one of my mandolins. To my son Dominic I bequeath my Guild D40 (1970), my Freshwater Mandola, my fiddle, my Almeira classical guitar, my 12 string mandolin and my selection of Harmonicas. To my wife Sarah I leave my whistles so that she can dispose of them as she has always wished to!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 05:33 PM

Doh...................forgot the Tanglewood electro-acoustic guess that better burn with me!

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 05:38 PM

You know who's going to inherit ALL our stuff?

Mother Earth.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 04:38 PM

I want my instruments given to someone who plays well, but could otherwise not afford a good instrument. I want them used, not put up as art objects. I have it so stipulated in my will. I think the people I have put in charge of taking care of such things would probably honor my wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Cluin
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 05:39 PM

By the way, guitars don't actually last that long. Not like a violin that can be played for centuries. The tension of the strings and the way guitars are constructed makes for a machine that falls apart in much less than a hundred years, especially if it's played a lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:03 PM

If my husband wanted my instruments, then by all means he should have them...otherwise, I know a few folks who play fiddle who probably would put them to good use. :)

I almost think I would want my chin-cello to go to Karen of Simple Gifts since she is the one who first played that heavenly sound for me.....

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 06:17 PM

My son Chris will inherit my two antique Martin guitars, one a 1938 and the other a 1927. He will carry on the tradition. As I told him the other day ... "These guitars are to die for!" (And I think that's how he'll get them)! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Crystal
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 07:07 AM

I've already inhereted my fathers melodean (it's a very cheap one!) And I'm attempting to "inheret" his Jig Dolls, I'm planning to try smuggling them out of the house at christmas! He will probably not be best pleased but never mind!

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 07:14 AM

"You know who's going to inherit ALL our stuff?"

Actually the sun will go Red Dwarf and eat it all by then...

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 06:18 PM

I lent Jacqui's medieval pitch silkwood Dolmetsch recorder to about the only other recorder player round here who did something other than go "toot toot" (Jacqui had technical limitations but could make a recorder wail and moan like no other). They gave it back in due course because they did not like to risk taking to out of the house.

Currently trying to persuade her niece to resume playing the recorder.

Subject: RE: BS: Who will inherit your instruments?
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 07:23 PM

While I have quite a few instruments, I plan to pass on four items to my grandson, Bear. Two of the items are swords; both my Marine Corps Officers sword and my Father's Naval Officer sword (which has been used to cut the wedding cakes of every member of our family since it was first used by my Father at his wedding in 1945). Both are intricately engraved and mounted.

But there are two other instruments that go with them. One is a Larrivee Presentation D-72 guitar, with abalone purfling and Vine and Vase inlay down the entire fingerboard; and the other is a Wildwood Heirloom Soloist open back banjo with an abalone Tree of Life down the finger board and engraved hoop, brackets and tailpiece. I play them every day.

I will leave it to him to decide when to use any of them... or mount them on a wall.