B.B. King called his guitar Lucille, and my fiddle has been christened Betsy from day one, I put her to bed in the evening and take her gently out to play daily.....Betsy..great name...great sound
Off for a week's Holiday without her, very tough.....
My guitar has never really been given a name (all suggestions considered). I know there are plenty of wierdos, er sorry, folk on here who do name their instruments. I am sure a list will be forthcoming.
Sometimes, I call my mandolin "Mandy". How sad is that!!!
"Well you came and you gave without taking
but I sent you away, oh Mandy
well you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy"
Sometimes I call my flute Hilary. It's Clinton serial number 157. I suppose I could call it Cigar, or Monica. But mostly it's just the flute. I certainly don't want to call it Bill.
Hmmm.... The names of my two concertinas are Charlie and Jeffrey - highly inventive really. Never really came up with satisfying names for the fiddle - have no idea what that says about me playing favourites, but there ya go.
I do tend to get a few strange looks when I'm at the airport ticking off my check list - asking "Who's got Charlie" can be a bit sus
Ow! Dow, your razor sharp wit has humbled me and thus persuaded me that I too must find a name for my flute. My blackwood Boehm one, that is....oh, then there's the two other boehms, three or four simple systems, four boxes, about fifty whistles bodhrans harmonicas, a piano, a whole drawerful of cutlery, a kazoo, a whoopee cushion, a comb and paper....I don't know if there are enough names to go round.........
I call my whistle "My Whistle". As in, "I've brought My Whistle along tonight", or, "My Whistle's in my pocket", or, "Would you like to borrow My Whistle", or, "This is My Whistle, everyone", or, "My Whistle is in D".
Good, isn't it?
Max, that's very confusing. Why don't you call it Bruce. Then I'll call my flute Bruce, and Aidan can call his banjo Bruce, and so on. That would be a lot simpler.
Isn't it philosophers who are all called Bruce, not musical instruments: http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/bruces.htm
I call my har, Monica and my ban, Jo (poor try, I know - but I've also got a shed called Ernie)
This is really sad!
What about the boxes and cases you carry your instruments in every day? Don't they deserve names too?
I call the box that I keep my flute in Frank, because it looks like my next door neighbour. And I call the little backpack that I put it in Mrs. Ottery, because it really annoys the real Mrs. O. if she thinks Im having a conversation with her but actually I'm just chatting to the bag.
Well, Danny, I think I'll call my whistle Aidan, and you can call your flute Max, and Aidan can call his banjo Danny. That would be much simpler, don't you think. Oh, but what would Frankie call his spoons?
Well, my first car was Emma, because she was an old Avenger....
The bass is The Dadga ( sounds like a tuning, doesn't it ?).
The kids called one of my cars Slightly, because it was slightly better than the one before.
Nothing much else is named, so I'm not that sad then.
I had farmed for many years and known numerous cows named Betsy. Always wondered why that's seen as a good cow name. (Sorry, to any people out there named Betsy. )
My first fiddle was called Frank, and to be fair to it's mate, the bow, I named it, Ernest. Their names mostly fit, especially at my beginners playing level! I haven't heard the muse calling to me to name my new fiddle yet....
I have six fiddles, only 3 of whom are named. There's Micky, my favourite, made by Michael Shannon in Sligo, who you all ought to go listen to if you get a chance as the man's a genius; then there's Lars (the Danish fiddle) and Fritz (the German 'outdoor' fiddle, about whom *maybe* more anon).
There's another German factory fiddle from around 1920 or thereabouts, which is really pretty good, an 18th century English fiddle that deserves a name - a beautiful looking, and sounding, instrument but a pig to play - and 'the new one' that I got the other week for £20 from an 'antique' shop, and I haven't got round to doing up yet so hasn't acquired a name.
Why is it 'sad' to name them? How are they going to know you're home? How will they know you're calling them?
Oh, and don't get me started on the cruelty of people changing an instrument's name just because they acquire it. I'd hang the lot of them.
... then I have bags of whistles (unnamed), ocarinas, recorders, a guitar called Oughtred and another called Effie, a piano called Bentley, 3 mandolins ...
(sorry about this, but they were all protesting about being left out - they got jealous)
I have three violins, Old Spice, Posh Spice and Scary Spice (the electric one), but I seem to spend more time with the dishcloth in my hand so I've called that Florizelle. Apart from that, I'm completely normal.
"Maybe he could call one of the spoons Brian and the other one Life of...."
Funny you should say that , Danny. I called my first mandolin Mand O'Lynn. Naturally, the second one I owned was called Brian. Not that I ever *addressed* either of them by their names - it was always obvious which one I was talking to, anyway, by my tone of voice. Since my third mandolin was made by me, it is essentially a part of me, so it was never necessary to give it a name - any more than it would be necessary to name, say, my ears or my pancreas.
As for my whistles, they're called 'Penny', 'Tim', and 'Don't Grumble, Give a...'.
I have a Hohner Special 20 low D harmonica called Hero. There's a big sticker to that effect on the top cover plate. I've told my wife to lay it on my chest just before they nail the lid down. It kept me going in the late 1990s when it was impossible for several years to get this harp in the UK. It must have had a dozen reed transplants before I finally retired it. I haven't played it for ten years now, but when I blew it a couple of weeks ago it was perfectly in tune.
So, david, your third mandolin is a spoon? Just don't get confused and try and clack it together with another one, eg your fourth, which is presumably also a spoon.
Haha, I have the names of all my babies on my user description, how sad is that?
My bow, however, is named Fred...unfortunately, Fred is out for the moment because he needs to be rehaired and until my parents will take me to a luthier I'm stuck with my spare that does NOT get a name...grrr...
And my friend has a shaky egg named Jeffrey, since that came up a bit ago...the best part is that Jeffrey's actually made several gig appearances since our maracas were laid to rest...
no names, but i do tuck my concertinas and button boxes into their cases and tell them "sweet dreams," and ask them about their hopes and dreams and that sort of stuff....the concertina attachment has gotten to the point where there might be a danger of having one near the pillow at sleepytime, but for the fact that the menage includes a rabbit who has the run of the joint 24/7 and likes to chew on wood and leather.......
I call my Banjo "God" .
So if my wife comes to the living room i say "becareful , God is on the sofa" and she knows where not to sit (Even though lately i get the feeling she tries to sit on it as if mistakenly ...)
I would change your banjo's name from "God." I can see your wife's logic in trying to sit on it. She may be emulating Jesus, who after all did sit on the right hand of his father...
I used to share a house with a crazy guy from Cork who had a tuba called Betsy and a cornet called Betsy Junior. He used to play them in the kitchen of our (tiny) apartment at 4 in the morning...not amusing...!!!
Her name is Betsy
Her name is Betsy
Hi there,
B.B. King called his guitar Lucille, and my fiddle has been christened Betsy from day one, I put her to bed in the evening and take her gently out to play daily.....Betsy..great name...great sound
Off for a week's Holiday without her, very tough.....
Regards
Shylock
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Shylock
Re: Her name is Betsy
My guitar has never really been given a name (all suggestions considered). I know there are plenty of wierdos, er sorry, folk on here who do name their instruments. I am sure a list will be forthcoming.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Her name is Betsy
Here we go again. Welcome to Saddoland.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
You fit right in here, Key Maniac Lad.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Dow
Re: Her name is Betsy
Danny... come to the dark side. My instruments talk to me. They all have names.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by session savage
Re: Her name is Betsy
The only personalisation of an instrument I was aware of was Padraig O'Keefe's reference to the fiddle as "his wife" - see http://comhaltas.ie/blog/post/padraig_o_caoimh_o_keeffe/
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Bannerman
Re: Her name is Betsy
Sometimes, I call my mandolin "Mandy". How sad is that!!!
"Well you came and you gave without taking
but I sent you away, oh Mandy
well you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy"
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Johannes J
Re: Her name is Betsy
Sometimes I call my flute Hilary. It's Clinton serial number 157. I suppose I could call it Cigar, or Monica. But mostly it's just the flute. I certainly don't want to call it Bill.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Lingpupa
Re: Her name is Betsy
You should do, and then you could say stuff like "I blow Bill every Tuesday night down the pub"
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Dow
Re: Her name is Betsy
Hmmm.... The names of my two concertinas are Charlie and Jeffrey - highly inventive really. Never really came up with satisfying names for the fiddle - have no idea what that says about me playing favourites, but there ya go.
I do tend to get a few strange looks when I'm at the airport ticking off my check list - asking "Who's got Charlie" can be a bit sus
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by nnicharra
Re: Her name is Betsy
My fiddle is very beautiful. Her name is Bella Violina.
AH, now if only I could make her sign as beautiful as she looks!
Mary
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: Her name is Betsy
Opps, that was supposed to be make her "sing" as good as she looks.
Mary
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: Her name is Betsy
Hmmm... you see I feel the need for the names to be male - feels just plain wrong otherwise
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by nnicharra
Re: Her name is Betsy
Ow! Dow, your razor sharp wit has humbled me and thus persuaded me that I too must find a name for my flute. My blackwood Boehm one, that is....oh, then there's the two other boehms, three or four simple systems, four boxes, about fifty whistles bodhrans harmonicas, a piano, a whole drawerful of cutlery, a kazoo, a whoopee cushion, a comb and paper....I don't know if there are enough names to go round.........
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
I call my whistle "My Whistle". As in, "I've brought My Whistle along tonight", or, "My Whistle's in my pocket", or, "Would you like to borrow My Whistle", or, "This is My Whistle, everyone", or, "My Whistle is in D".
Good, isn't it?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by maxF
Re: Her name is Betsy
Max, that's very confusing. Why don't you call it Bruce. Then I'll call my flute Bruce, and Aidan can call his banjo Bruce, and so on. That would be a lot simpler.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
Danny, you never mentioned your shaky egg, or is that so sacred that it shouldn't even be mentioned alongside other, lowlier instruments?
I can think of a few names for your flute but I don't think you'd like any of them
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Dow
Re: Her name is Betsy
Dow please don't ever mention Humpty again without his express permission, may peace be upon Him.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
Isn't it philosophers who are all called Bruce, not musical instruments: http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/bruces.htm
I call my har, Monica and my ban, Jo (poor try, I know - but I've also got a shed called Ernie)
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by RichardB
Re: Her name is Betsy
This is really sad!
What about the boxes and cases you carry your instruments in every day? Don't they deserve names too?
I call the box that I keep my flute in Frank, because it looks like my next door neighbour. And I call the little backpack that I put it in Mrs. Ottery, because it really annoys the real Mrs. O. if she thinks Im having a conversation with her but actually I'm just chatting to the bag.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Ottery
Re: Her name is Betsy
Well, Danny, I think I'll call my whistle Aidan, and you can call your flute Max, and Aidan can call his banjo Danny. That would be much simpler, don't you think. Oh, but what would Frankie call his spoons?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by maxF
Re: Her name is Betsy
RichardB, have you just got the one shed, then?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by maxF
Re: Her name is Betsy
Well, my first car was Emma, because she was an old Avenger....
The bass is The Dadga ( sounds like a tuning, doesn't it ?).
The kids called one of my cars Slightly, because it was slightly better than the one before.
Nothing much else is named, so I'm not that sad then.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Her name is Betsy
lots of sheds! Can you have too many?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by RichardB
Re: Her name is Betsy
I thought David was the spoon around here.
Maybe he could call one of the spoons Brian and the other one Life of....
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
There seems to be something strange about the name "Betsy".I find when people name an object a lot of them use this name.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by dinn2
Re: Her name is Betsy
I had farmed for many years and known numerous cows named Betsy. Always wondered why that's seen as a good cow name. (Sorry, to any people out there named Betsy. )
Mary
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Antikhntr
Re: Her name is Betsy
I named my fiddle Michael Hunt.
I just call it Mike.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by ukestrum
Re: Her name is Betsy
My first fiddle was called Frank, and to be fair to it's mate, the bow, I named it, Ernest. Their names mostly fit, especially at my beginners playing level! I haven't heard the muse calling to me to name my new fiddle yet....
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by highlandjan
Re: Her name is Betsy
"Ol' Firewood"
I once named named a plunger "Galactamos"
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by gravelwalks
Re: Her name is Betsy
'Murrican-built guitar: "Kevin Rooney's Frontal Lobe" (singular)
Swede-built guitar: "The Hammer of the Gods" (yah sure, cap "G", why not)
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: Her name is Betsy
A little off topic, but I have a mate who named his quad Pamela, after Pamela Anderson. I won't go into detail, but he loves Pamela very much.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by rob_handel
Re: Her name is Betsy
I have six fiddles, only 3 of whom are named. There's Micky, my favourite, made by Michael Shannon in Sligo, who you all ought to go listen to if you get a chance as the man's a genius; then there's Lars (the Danish fiddle) and Fritz (the German 'outdoor' fiddle, about whom *maybe* more anon).
There's another German factory fiddle from around 1920 or thereabouts, which is really pretty good, an 18th century English fiddle that deserves a name - a beautiful looking, and sounding, instrument but a pig to play - and 'the new one' that I got the other week for £20 from an 'antique' shop, and I haven't got round to doing up yet so hasn't acquired a name.
Why is it 'sad' to name them? How are they going to know you're home? How will they know you're calling them?
Oh, and don't get me started on the cruelty of people changing an instrument's name just because they acquire it. I'd hang the lot of them.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by benhall.1
Re: Her name is Betsy
... then I have bags of whistles (unnamed), ocarinas, recorders, a guitar called Oughtred and another called Effie, a piano called Bentley, 3 mandolins ...
(sorry about this, but they were all protesting about being left out - they got jealous)
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by benhall.1
Re: Her name is Betsy
I don't understand, Rob..
He called them ALL Pamela(?), or Pamela was a group name, or the other three were never named .... ?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by Ottery
Re: Her name is Betsy
I have three violins, Old Spice, Posh Spice and Scary Spice (the electric one), but I seem to spend more time with the dishcloth in my hand so I've called that Florizelle. Apart from that, I'm completely normal.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by bowburner
Re: Her name is Betsy
"Maybe he could call one of the spoons Brian and the other one Life of...."
Funny you should say that , Danny. I called my first mandolin Mand O'Lynn. Naturally, the second one I owned was called Brian. Not that I ever *addressed* either of them by their names - it was always obvious which one I was talking to, anyway, by my tone of voice. Since my third mandolin was made by me, it is essentially a part of me, so it was never necessary to give it a name - any more than it would be necessary to name, say, my ears or my pancreas.
As for my whistles, they're called 'Penny', 'Tim', and 'Don't Grumble, Give a...'.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by ragaman
Re: Her name is Betsy
Don't look now but the men in white suits are at the door.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by duffgen
Re: Her name is Betsy
Is one of them Eamonn Andrews?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by ragaman
Re: Her name is Betsy
What have they called their white suits?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by bowburner
Re: Her name is Betsy
naming bows is an option??? I'm such a neophyte.
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by matan_fiddler
Re: Her name is Betsy
And don't forget your rosin, or should I say Roisin?
# Posted on April 26th 2007 by bowburner
Re: Her name is Betsy
I have a Hohner Special 20 low D harmonica called Hero. There's a big sticker to that effect on the top cover plate. I've told my wife to lay it on my chest just before they nail the lid down. It kept me going in the late 1990s when it was impossible for several years to get this harp in the UK. It must have had a dozen reed transplants before I finally retired it. I haven't played it for ten years now, but when I blew it a couple of weeks ago it was perfectly in tune.
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: Her name is Betsy
So, david, your third mandolin is a spoon? Just don't get confused and try and clack it together with another one, eg your fourth, which is presumably also a spoon.
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Her name is Betsy
I called my motorbike Pamela, mainly because it had a lot of expensive plastic up front...
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by bc_box_player
Re: Her name is Betsy
Haha, I have the names of all my babies on my user description, how sad is that?
My bow, however, is named Fred...unfortunately, Fred is out for the moment because he needs to be rehaired and until my parents will take me to a luthier I'm stuck with my spare that does NOT get a name...grrr...
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by possumawesome
Re: Her name is Betsy
And my friend has a shaky egg named Jeffrey, since that came up a bit ago...the best part is that Jeffrey's actually made several gig appearances since our maracas were laid to rest...
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by possumawesome
Re: Her name is Betsy
no names, but i do tuck my concertinas and button boxes into their cases and tell them "sweet dreams," and ask them about their hopes and dreams and that sort of stuff....the concertina attachment has gotten to the point where there might be a danger of having one near the pillow at sleepytime, but for the fact that the menage includes a rabbit who has the run of the joint 24/7 and likes to chew on wood and leather.......
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by ceemonster
Re: Her name is Betsy
I call my Banjo "God" .
So if my wife comes to the living room i say "becareful , God is on the sofa" and she knows where not to sit (Even though lately i get the feeling she tries to sit on it as if mistakenly ...)
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by jobani
Re: Her name is Betsy
I would change your banjo's name from "God." I can see your wife's logic in trying to sit on it. She may be emulating Jesus, who after all did sit on the right hand of his father...
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by Steve Shaw
Re: Her name is Betsy
All my fiddles have names. None are printable.
# Posted on April 27th 2007 by ScottC
Re: Her name is Betsy
I used to share a house with a crazy guy from Cork who had a tuba called Betsy and a cornet called Betsy Junior. He used to play them in the kitchen of our (tiny) apartment at 4 in the morning...not amusing...!!!
# Posted on May 6th 2007 by Lizzy