It made me wonder (and cringe) - how many of you out there have "works of art" that are playable? What is the most interesting/valuable instrument that you have come across?
Man that is one ugly thingy! wouldnt you spike yourself on the fangs? Greenwiggle maybe we should make one up decorated with funnel web spiders! How very Aussie.
Would not want to change the strings to often...would be great if you could put in red or green LEDs in the eye sockets so it could flash in time with the tune you were playing...Speaking of Aussie, how about a rainbow lorikeet banjar?
I think a redback spider banjo would be fantastic...never have to fight for a seat again!
In New Zealand I came across an old fiddle with a lions head carved instead of a scroll at the top of the pegbox. I think it was quite valuable. The young lady playing it got a magnificient tone from it.
man thats a crazy instrument
it just cant be serious
i think the price is the best thing about it though i mean would anyone actually pay that much just for a laugh
Holy Shamola!! Thats alotta mulla! Youve just got to be kidding, was it played by John Lennon? It seems to me this guy is dreaming! Plus that poor little snake!
Now bb,
I am sure any self respecting rattler would be proud to end up on the stockhead of a handmade tenor guitar...It's not a joke, it is for real-check the validity of the website. They do sell some real pruty instruments. But the snake-guitar is only an example !!! I want to hear other peoples stories about musical-fashion disasters. Where is the rest of the globe?> Has the northern hemisphere gone to bed already? Or is this discussion too naff for the rest of www.thesession.egg ?
BTW Martin Doherty send off at the Shannon tonight, might see you there.
A friend of mine had a 5-string banjo with his name, Lizard, in inlay down the fretboard. He sold it one day, in order to pay some bills. He's convinced it will come back to him eventually...
So if any of you see it, let me know! Maybe we can put him in touch with the present owner. If fate works out kindly, maybe it'll fall into the hands of someone who buys it on a momentary whim and then decides to learn the mandolin instead!
Hey Zina, your husband didn't happen to buy it off Ebay, did he?
This doesn't look very exotic but it's pretty cool. If there are too many fiddle players at the session, you can play the flute part. Or the drum part. If there are too many of all of those at the session you can get yourself a flowerpotophone.
Holy smokes!! That Aussie is smokin' somethin'!! Ugliest guitar I'VE ever seen. YUCK!
But, the stonefiddle is a curious little item. Wonder what it's like.
The Potophone is just funny. I bet those guys have a ball playing with that homemade curiosity. I'd like to join them with our homemade bass made from a broom handle, a guitar string, and an upside down washtub. (Guess it's the Appalachian hillbilly influence on me.)
Helen -- nope, he never got a banjo amongst all the others, amazingly enough. I do have four or five white fiddles hanging round, as at some point or another I figure I'll learn a little more about the actual mechanics of fiddles and setups by learning to finish one myself. At some point or other, I'm going to make one of them a dark purple Goth fiddle to give a friend of mine as a gift. I figure I'll use guitar paint and make it all shiny and flashy -- I may even inset some semi-precious stones in the thing. I figure if I'm going to be silly about it, I might as well go all the way.
Oh wow, that glittery sparkly paint like on Glam Rock guitars and drum kits? That would be so cool! Well, to play on stage in a Glam-Trad band, anyway. I suppose you'd stick out a bit at sessions...
So, Glam-Trad, does it exist? Goth-Trad? Stoner-Trad? Death-Trad?? Nu-Trad, I guess that's Lunasa...
Oh no, not glittery, that would be WAY un-Goth...and my friend is way a total Goth chick, right down to insisting that she's not Goth. ;) A very deep purple, though, and maybe if I get ambitious I'll try for a twotone sort of effect. Goth trad would be hysterical...
In fact...HEY, WILL! If I brought one of those white violins up with me during Willfest, you wouldn't happen to have a reamer the right size to do the holes for the peg box, would you? It's been on my list of things to buy, but haven't gotten round to it yet...
Hey Helen and Zina--for some reason many people in the goth scene are attracted to Irish music. A few years back I met a guy whose band was called Grave Dance. He loved what I did and so he incorporated me into his band for one show. It was wild--smoke machine and all! (When he realized that I was not interested in him romantically, that put and end to my Goth-Trad career so far.) But it did attract the attention of the head Goth honcho in these parts and he wanted me to play at a Victorian costume gothy thingythat he was putting on, but I said no because he did not want to pay me. I should have done it because it would have been a great fun experience.
It would have either been hysterical or deadly boring, one of the two! Goths tend to take themselves altogether too seriously, although it's only the media that makes them sound dangerous, a real Goth is more likely to hurt him/herself than anybody else.
Yep, it's all style over content, really. Though I am speaking as a bit of an ex-Goth myself. I went to see Bauhaus, and the Virgin Prunes, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and stuff like that... and spent alot of time sizzling my hair in crimpers... But to be real deep-down Goth material, you do need a more heart-felt interest in clothes and cosmetics...
Actually I think Marilyn Manson is a bit of a stylish dude - no kidding, I think he's got a great flair. It's a shame his music is so pants.
Helen--looks like we had similar music interests back in the day--I was a huge Virgin Prunes fan as well--also Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke, etc. I gues those bands are all pre-Goth or preto-Goth. I wore all black for 10 years. Tired of it.
I'm only just moving out of the all-black, now! It makes life so simple - all your clothes match..! I had to really make a concious effort to start buying clothes in other colours. So now I'm wearing dazzling shades of dark brown, beige, and plum... one step at a time, you know...
I forced myself out of the black thing, too but still fall back on it every once in a while when I want to be dramatic. Don't need to be dramatic 24-7 anymore. Not that I ever really was all that dramatic.
Sorry to be a bit late to join this discussion, but I know the Asian banjo which is somewhat similar to the fancy guitar greenwiggle introduced to us. http://www.haisai-genki.com/sansingoods.html
That's San-shin, the traditional instrument of Okinawa or Ryukyu, the island on East China Sea, which was once a small independent kingdom and colonized by Japan later in early 17th century. Lovely in looks and sounds. 80cm long and the most expensive one on the page is around $300, and so much more affordable, I guess.
Interestingly enough, the music on the island used the very similar scales to that of ITM. Actually, Dow is more familiar with the language and culture of the island than I, so ask him for some more details.
Linda- A friend of mine made a flower pot xylophone and tuned the flower pots himself. It`s a fairly quiet instrument. He also made a trough xylophone by tuning old floor boards and setting them across a rectangular wooden trough about two and a half feet high. Another xylophone instrument can be made by tuning (or finding) old circular saw blades. All of these instruments would go very well with a washtub bass.
being a hammered dulcimer player i was just wondering if they are popular or even known in Ireland, and if they would be welcome in sessions over there. i'm heading over in may and am hesitant to lug it along unless it will be useful.
Get a look at this monster. Cthuilleann, indeed, wish I owned it, it has no business sitting in a museum, especially if the chanter has survived untouched since the 1840-1850s.
Leading to the easily portable and carefully tuned wash basins, hand formed and finished by your neighborhood bathtub craftsman, for the bathtub player wanting more portability...
Interesting instruments...
Interesting instruments...
Just wanted to share this image with you...
http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/80U-1753.htm
It made me wonder (and cringe) - how many of you out there have "works of art" that are playable? What is the most interesting/valuable instrument that you have come across?
No shakey egg references Pu-leez!
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Interesting instruments...
Man that is one ugly thingy! wouldnt you spike yourself on the fangs? Greenwiggle maybe we should make one up decorated with funnel web spiders! How very Aussie.
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by bb
Re: Interesting instruments...
Would not want to change the strings to often...would be great if you could put in red or green LEDs in the eye sockets so it could flash in time with the tune you were playing...Speaking of Aussie, how about a rainbow lorikeet banjar?
http://buckmaster.now.nu/
I think a redback spider banjo would be fantastic...never have to fight for a seat again!
In New Zealand I came across an old fiddle with a lions head carved instead of a scroll at the top of the pegbox. I think it was quite valuable. The young lady playing it got a magnificient tone from it.
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Interesting instruments...
man thats a crazy instrument
it just cant be serious
i think the price is the best thing about it though i mean would anyone actually pay that much just for a laugh
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by timo
Re: Interesting instruments...
How much was it?
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by bb
Re: Interesting instruments...
US $12 000.00
Why not sell a kidney to own something as lovely as this?
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Interesting instruments...
Holy Shamola!! Thats alotta mulla! Youve just got to be kidding, was it played by John Lennon? It seems to me this guy is dreaming! Plus that poor little snake!
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by bb
Re: Interesting instruments...
Now bb,
I am sure any self respecting rattler would be proud to end up on the stockhead of a handmade tenor guitar...It's not a joke, it is for real-check the validity of the website. They do sell some real pruty instruments. But the snake-guitar is only an example !!! I want to hear other peoples stories about musical-fashion disasters. Where is the rest of the globe?> Has the northern hemisphere gone to bed already? Or is this discussion too naff for the rest of www.thesession.egg ?
BTW Martin Doherty send off at the Shannon tonight, might see you there.
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Interesting instruments...
Choices, choices...One foot in the..
http://www.atgproductions.com/mazelcoffins/products.html
Keep smilin
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Interesting instruments...
This is definately the way forward for Irish Trad.
http://members.localnet.com/~dorloo/docrec/sobtxt.html
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Interesting instruments...
A friend of mine had a 5-string banjo with his name, Lizard, in inlay down the fretboard. He sold it one day, in order to pay some bills. He's convinced it will come back to him eventually...
So if any of you see it, let me know! Maybe we can put him in touch with the present owner. If fate works out kindly, maybe it'll fall into the hands of someone who buys it on a momentary whim and then decides to learn the mandolin instead!
Hey Zina, your husband didn't happen to buy it off Ebay, did he?
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by Nell
Re: Interesting instruments...
This doesn't look very exotic but it's pretty cool. If there are too many fiddle players at the session, you can play the flute part. Or the drum part. If there are too many of all of those at the session you can get yourself a flowerpotophone.
http://www.ninestones.com/stonefidl.html
http://www.ninestones.com/potophone.html
Steve
# Posted on July 24th 2003 by SteveKendall
Re: Interesting instruments...
Ever seen a set of uilleann pipes with five regulators? Now that's a death and destruction machine!
# Posted on July 25th 2003 by Hanley
PS
Especially if you drop it on someone...
# Posted on July 25th 2003 by Hanley
Re: Interesting instruments...
Holy smokes!! That Aussie is smokin' somethin'!! Ugliest guitar I'VE ever seen. YUCK!
But, the stonefiddle is a curious little item. Wonder what it's like.
The Potophone is just funny. I bet those guys have a ball playing with that homemade curiosity. I'd like to join them with our homemade bass made from a broom handle, a guitar string, and an upside down washtub. (Guess it's the Appalachian hillbilly influence on me.)
Linda
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by linda
Re: Interesting instruments...
Helen -- nope, he never got a banjo amongst all the others, amazingly enough. I do have four or five white fiddles hanging round, as at some point or another I figure I'll learn a little more about the actual mechanics of fiddles and setups by learning to finish one myself. At some point or other, I'm going to make one of them a dark purple Goth fiddle to give a friend of mine as a gift. I figure I'll use guitar paint and make it all shiny and flashy -- I may even inset some semi-precious stones in the thing. I figure if I'm going to be silly about it, I might as well go all the way.
zls
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Interesting instruments...
Oh wow, that glittery sparkly paint like on Glam Rock guitars and drum kits? That would be so cool! Well, to play on stage in a Glam-Trad band, anyway. I suppose you'd stick out a bit at sessions...
So, Glam-Trad, does it exist? Goth-Trad? Stoner-Trad? Death-Trad?? Nu-Trad, I guess that's Lunasa...
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Nell
Re: Interesting instruments...
Oh no, not glittery, that would be WAY un-Goth...and my friend is way a total Goth chick, right down to insisting that she's not Goth. ;) A very deep purple, though, and maybe if I get ambitious I'll try for a twotone sort of effect. Goth trad would be hysterical...
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Zina Lee
In fact...HEY, WILL! If I brought one of those white violins up with me during Willfest, you wouldn't happen to have a reamer the right size to do the holes for the peg box, would you? It's been on my list of things to buy, but haven't gotten round to it yet...
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Interesting instruments...
Hey Helen and Zina--for some reason many people in the goth scene are attracted to Irish music. A few years back I met a guy whose band was called Grave Dance. He loved what I did and so he incorporated me into his band for one show. It was wild--smoke machine and all! (When he realized that I was not interested in him romantically, that put and end to my Goth-Trad career so far.) But it did attract the attention of the head Goth honcho in these parts and he wanted me to play at a Victorian costume gothy thingythat he was putting on, but I said no because he did not want to pay me. I should have done it because it would have been a great fun experience.
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Andee
Re: Interesting instruments...
It would have either been hysterical or deadly boring, one of the two! Goths tend to take themselves altogether too seriously, although it's only the media that makes them sound dangerous, a real Goth is more likely to hurt him/herself than anybody else.
"I'm so tragic!"
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Interesting instruments...
Yep, it's all style over content, really. Though I am speaking as a bit of an ex-Goth myself. I went to see Bauhaus, and the Virgin Prunes, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and stuff like that... and spent alot of time sizzling my hair in crimpers... But to be real deep-down Goth material, you do need a more heart-felt interest in clothes and cosmetics...
Actually I think Marilyn Manson is a bit of a stylish dude - no kidding, I think he's got a great flair. It's a shame his music is so pants.
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Nell
Re: Interesting instruments...
Helen--looks like we had similar music interests back in the day--I was a huge Virgin Prunes fan as well--also Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke, etc. I gues those bands are all pre-Goth or preto-Goth. I wore all black for 10 years. Tired of it.
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Andee
Re: Interesting instruments...
I'm only just moving out of the all-black, now! It makes life so simple - all your clothes match..! I had to really make a concious effort to start buying clothes in other colours. So now I'm wearing dazzling shades of dark brown, beige, and plum... one step at a time, you know...
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Nell
Re: Interesting instruments...
I forced myself out of the black thing, too but still fall back on it every once in a while when I want to be dramatic. Don't need to be dramatic 24-7 anymore. Not that I ever really was all that dramatic.
# Posted on July 26th 2003 by Andee
Asian Banjo
Sorry to be a bit late to join this discussion, but I know the Asian banjo which is somewhat similar to the fancy guitar greenwiggle introduced to us. http://www.haisai-genki.com/sansingoods.html
That's San-shin, the traditional instrument of Okinawa or Ryukyu, the island on East China Sea, which was once a small independent kingdom and colonized by Japan later in early 17th century. Lovely in looks and sounds. 80cm long and the most expensive one on the page is around $300, and so much more affordable, I guess.
Interestingly enough, the music on the island used the very similar scales to that of ITM. Actually, Dow is more familiar with the language and culture of the island than I, so ask him for some more details.
# Posted on July 27th 2003 by slainte
Re: Interesting instruments...
Now I found better links pages in English: http://www.okinawaresource.org/content/sanshin/
It's a quite international instrument: http://japanupdate.com/previous/01/11/07/story17.shtml
# Posted on July 27th 2003 by slainte
Re: Interesting instruments...
Linda- A friend of mine made a flower pot xylophone and tuned the flower pots himself. It`s a fairly quiet instrument. He also made a trough xylophone by tuning old floor boards and setting them across a rectangular wooden trough about two and a half feet high. Another xylophone instrument can be made by tuning (or finding) old circular saw blades. All of these instruments would go very well with a washtub bass.
Steve
# Posted on July 27th 2003 by SteveKendall
Re: Interesting instruments...
being a hammered dulcimer player i was just wondering if they are popular or even known in Ireland, and if they would be welcome in sessions over there. i'm heading over in may and am hesitant to lug it along unless it will be useful.
# Posted on July 27th 2003 by rae_rae_racer
Re: Interesting instruments...
The past couple of years there has been a hammered dulcimer festival in Cork. Here's Cliff Moses report on it and a link to the page.
http://www.cliffmoses.com/Cork%20Dulcimer%20Festival/Trip%20to%20Ireland.htm
Steve
# Posted on July 27th 2003 by SteveKendall
Re: Interesting instruments...
Get a look at this monster. Cthuilleann, indeed, wish I owned it, it has no business sitting in a museum, especially if the chanter has survived untouched since the 1840-1850s.
http://user.it.uu.se/~crwth/bagpipes/uilleann/
# Posted on July 28th 2003 by Hanley
On Paddy Keenan's "N
# Posted on July 31st 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Interesting instruments...
Leading to the easily portable and carefully tuned wash basins, hand formed and finished by your neighborhood bathtub craftsman, for the bathtub player wanting more portability...
# Posted on July 31st 2003 by Zina Lee
But ...
The only problem being, Zina, that players of the original bathtub (an tub m
# Posted on August 3rd 2003 by Aidan Crossey
Re: Interesting instruments...
The cistern! Totally brilliant, Aidan! LOL
# Posted on August 4th 2003 by Zina Lee