Instruments

[Gratefully_dead]

Hey I was just thinking about it, and I can't recall seeing any thread about musical instruments. If there have been and I dont remember well my bad haha.

What's your personal favourite instrument? What do you play? How long have you been playing etc. etc.

Me I play the bagpipes this is my third year taking lessons and I gotta say it's a pretty fun time haha I also play a bit of guitar well i know a couple tunes and i like to carry around a harmonica (key of A) in case I feel the need to jam on the go lol

 

[Meduzz]

There has been a thread but it's too old i think.

I play guitar (I was in a metal band once ) and djembe

 

[Lion]

guitar

 

[Guest]

I have an acoustic 3/4 classic guitar and a good Tanglewood TW115 dreadnought steelstring guitar.
I also have a Stratocaster selfbuilt copy.
And a Melodica (a small piano you have to blow air in to play)
I also have an organ that sounds like the melodica, only is electricly powered.
And I have a charango wich is basicly a kind of 10 string Ukelele.
I also do a bit of mouthharp, although I have to get a new one, because my old one is rusty.

 

[magickmumu]

My favorite musical instrument is my voice. I love to sing.
Ten years ago i had some keyboard lessons.
Now i am practicing with my jew's harp (jaw harp), a small and simple instrument.
I also have a small kalimba, and i am looking for a good drum.
I found this website with great drums.

http://home.zonnet.nl/TwoBears/SJAMANENTROMMELS.htm

Keep themusic going

 

[ararat]

I once played the guitar a bit, both acoustic and electric.
Now I'm playing the synthesizer not often, but it is my favourite "instrument" (concerning sound)

I'm thinking of getting a didgeridoo. it's very much fun to play with those

hehe

 

[Guest]

i took piano lessons and church organ lessons (my favourite instrument, the king of them all - you have to play it once with an orchestra and a full choir to know what i mean). i haven't had more lessons, but i learned to play many instruments with another players, and some of them by myself:
-digeridoo (i have two, one in bamboo and another one in pine)
- a strat guitar, that is currently under strong modifications (i am a DIY freak and like to do things by myself)
- a explorer guitar, by epiphone (great sound, i liked it over several gibsons, and it is made in korina, a nice wood with GREAT tone)
- a roland keyboard, juno-d model (i carried it everywhere, it played in the biggest arenas in portugal, so i am very attached to it)
- a clavinova, by yamaha, made in the 80's, where i learned to play - a great touch-sensitive keyboard, even by today's standards
- a 5 string bass, by washburn, very, very versatile
- a fender bass combo (100W)
- a roland all-rounder combo (120W)
- a vintage found-in-the-garbage combo from the 70's, with modified electronics so it was simpler to use
- hand made guitar that i bought in madrid (had to starve for a month to buy it. i only ate rice and things i used to find in a garbage can near a restaurant. god did i love the grilled squids!!)
- a steel-string guitar
- a custom drum set (2 toms, 22' bass drum, two snares, a ride, a china and hi-hats)
- custom cymbals that i made from pieces of metal i found in the place where old cars go (can't remember the name)
- a djembé bought in morrocco
- a darbouka
- small djembé
- a lute from congo
- an old federal republic of germany (don't know if this is correct) instrument, don't know how it is called. it has several strings which you tune and hit with a drum stick, or pluck with a feather.
- a banjo

edit:

- many, many orff instruments
- many stuff that is used to make noises, like bottles, garbage-found things, all organized as a percussion-set (easier to play, many sounds available)
- a boss GT8
- line6 POD (the first version of all, had an IC burned and a broken female jack which i both sucessfully managed to replace and now it is working at 100%. i think it was built around 97-99 and IMHO, line6 never managed to top this little kidney-shaped machine...the dynamics are simply suberb)
- behringer compressor/gate/expander/peak limiter (1U rack version)
- a DIY volume pedal (there's a photo in the "your creative work" thread on this forum. it works great, very transparent)
- a DIY serial looper with personal adjustments (tuner out, blend knob, ABY box, can work with 4 different combos at the same time with different effects i want in each one)
- a DIY parallel looper, which is great to mix different effects (each send/return with a volume pedal, which ables one to mix different effects into a single out)
- behringer bass v-amp (i think this is the correct name, can't recall)
- a "berimbau", brazilian instrument
- two jews harp (also called "berimbau" in some regions of africa)

i am also building an electric guitar which has a very unique design, perhaps i will be able to finish it before the summer is over, i'll show it to you as soon as it is done. it will have a fender custom shop pickup (single coil), and the body will be inspired in electric double-basses, very portable, small, durable and great tone. it will also be tuned in drop C, fretless and with a nice vibratot (whammy bar).
i also have some custom pedal projects, but the money is short, and an effect pedal built from scratch is always expensive. if anyone here happens to get hold of an old turntable, or a needle, or something that can read a vinyl, please tell me that we'll make a deal!

 

[Guest]

Do you guys remember the name of this new instrument called something like "hand drum" or "touch drum" ?

It can actually be found for around 2000 euros on eBay, it's supposed to have quite an unique sound !

EDIT : Found it !

I love the sound of it

 

[Lion]

Do you guys remember the name of this new instrument called something like "hand drum" or "touch drum" ?

It can actually be found for around 2000 euros on eBay, it's supposed to have quite an unique sound !

EDIT : Found it !

I love the sound of it

NICE!

but 2000 euros is too much

 

[Guest]

EDIT : Found it !

I love the sound of it

Hey I saw that guy in Amsterdam
But I also love the sound the thing makes, it's very tropical, but you can make very nice spacey melodies with it.

 

[ararat]

what a nice instrument!
it reminded me of wisp

 

[Guest]

that drum is very similar as a steeldrum (that produces that typical caribbean sound), but with a different construction. they are so expensive because they are always hand-made...it is very hard to build - too many variables, like depth and width of the "hole" that produces the note, quality and density of the metal, hand-tuning...
personally, i don't think it is worth the money, since with 2000€ you can buy another instruments that are so much more versatile. besides, that instrument is very easy to sample, and almost any cheap keyboard has a convincing steeldrum sound.

 

[Guest]

and almost any cheap keyboard has a convincing steeldrum sound.

Well, not convincing enough if you love sound
Just my 2 cents

 

[Guest]

i understand what you are saying.
it's all about the options: what do you really want ? the true sound, which costs many euros, or a convincing sound, much cheaper, which allows you to more versatility ?
a keyboard with good samples costs 500 euros. and you get many sounds. a good piano, for example, costs 10.000 or 20.000 euros, and it's not the best piano around. you can buy one, but you have to save plenty of money and plan your expenses really tight. or you buy the same keyboard that has that "not-so-convincing-sound" and you don't need to save so much.
i prefer a good alternative to the real deal, if the price justifies it...and sometimes, when you stop treating the alternative as alternative and you start to treat her as something "real", you get new sounds and perhaps new techniques that weren't possible before, blah blah blah....you get the point
and you aren't always affraid of breaking/losing that expensive drum!


edit: i think that we shouldn't look at sampled keyboards as copies, or imitations of the real instruments. they are instruments by themselves, which borrow the sound from others. there will never be nothing sounding more like a hand drum than ... a hand drum. but a hand drum cannot be electronically routed. and a sampler keyboard cannot be held between the legs and hit with your hands.
2000€ can buy a lot of food, space! that's always my concern

 

[ararat]

I agree

man I'd love a good device for field-recording (+ a sampler license for ableton ).
would also be nice to sample certain instruments

 

[Guest]

Haha, yeah I know what you're saying.
€2000 is a hell of a lot of money.
Only a lot of synthesizers/keyboards sound so cheap, that's always my concern, I'd rather don't use an instrument then a cheap sounding substitute.
Although luckilly there's a lot of good software, sample packages on the market.
Lucky for me I know a lot of people with "real" instruments that I can sample and record.

But to get that sound I think I'll pay the Amsterdam guy 50 bucks to do some sampling on a good location.

 

[Lion]

I'd rather don't use an instrument then a cheap sounding substitute.
.

i think this is a load of crap don't feel offended though.
i'm a guitarist and i often see many cheap guitars that are definetely GOOD guitars.

 

[Guest]

lion, it's all about the mainstream sound.
a "good" sound ( meaning a sound that is commonly heard) costs a lot. a "bad" sound (different) costs much less.
you should always check the construction of the instrument, that is what makes it good or bad. the sound is up to the musician...and the listener (if there is one).
the best instruments i have ever had were cheap, or found in the garbage can. once i played a gig where a guy wanted to buy a guitar that i bought for 10€ (had the neck broken and no pickups...only the body was good) for 500€, simply because i fixed it, painted and learned how to play it (every guitar is played with different adjustments, as you know). that is very conclusive...

 

[Lion]

lion, it's all about the mainstream sound.
a "good" sound ( meaning a sound that is commonly heard) costs a lot. a "bad" sound (different) costs much less.
you should always check the construction of the instrument, that is what makes it good or bad. the sound is up to the musician...and the listener (if there is one).
the best instruments i have ever had were cheap, or found in the garbage can. once i played a gig where a guy wanted to buy a guitar that i bought for 10€ (had the neck broken and no pickups...only the body was good) for 500€, simply because i fixed it, painted and learned how to play it (every guitar is played with different adjustments, as you know). that is very conclusive...

a good sound is a sound the musician likes. not a sound the mainstream flow likes... you should know that

 

[ararat]

I think you can be sure that daytripper already knows that