Your oldest musical instrument

[weepiper]

I take it from your username that you play as well.

(Is it true that they only play in 1 key, btw? Have often wondered. Well, not that often, but since you're here....)

I do indeed. I also have a set of Scottish small pipes and a set of Border pipes (both played with a bellows rather than mouth-blown like the GHB) but they're both modern sets.

No it's not true that you can only play in one key. You are rather limited as there's only 9 notes available from (written) low G to high A. Scale runs G natural, A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G natural, A.

So you can play tunes in G major, A major, A 'sort of' minor if you don't play any Cs (A with a minor 'feel' but it's not truly a minor key without the flattened third I believe), D major. My border pipes have the same scale length and will play with the same fingering as the highland pipes but are also fully chromatic if you use different fingerings.

All that above is made more complicated by the fact that highland bagpipes are a transposing instrument, music is written in A but the actual note the instrument plays when you finger an A is somewhere sharp of B flat

 

[xenon]

A 90's Ibanez RG. yes that is 1990's.

i am somewhat out of my league here.

 

[N_igma]

I found a couple of rocks outside there, when I bash them together I can make a song. They must be a few million years old, I win.

 

[weepiper]

I found a couple of rocks outside there, when I bash them together I can make a song. They must be a few million years old, I win.

Yeah but you only made them into an instrument just now so they don't count...

 

[Cheesypoof]

glockenspiel. my folks are musicians and we even got a harp in the gaf.

 

[idioteque]

I've no idea how old the family's baby grand is, but its probably quite old. I have a Yamaha acoustic guitar SJ400S (no idea what year) and a Hofner Senator acoustic 1954, and a Takamine EG560c which looks and probably is very new. I'm not presenting any competition here!

 

[the button]

I do indeed. I also have a set of Scottish small pipes and a set of Border pipes (both played with a bellows rather than mouth-blown like the GHB) but they're both modern sets.

No it's not true that you can only play in one key. You are rather limited as there's only 9 notes available from (written) low G to high A. Scale runs G natural, A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G natural, A.

So you can play tunes in G major, A major, A 'sort of' minor if you don't play any Cs (A with a minor 'feel' but it's not truly a minor key without the flattened third I believe), D major. My border pipes have the same scale length and will play with the same fingering as the highland pipes but are also fully chromatic if you use different fingerings.

All that above is made more complicated by the fact that highland bagpipes are a transposing instrument, music is written in A but the actual note the instrument plays when you finger an A is somewhere sharp of B flat

Cheers for that. Very interesting.

On the whole A minor thing, it's true that a minor key does require a flatted third. However, if Scots traditional music is owt like English (and I must admit, I don't know), a lot of it's modal (i.e. based on scales that -- according to conventional music theory -- have 'missing' or 'odd' notes).

The system of concertina that I play has two "home" keys (C & G). However, the third row is the missing sharps & flats, and also some useful repeats of common notes in C & G -- so it's possible to play a melody in any key, in theory at least, although the chords available are a bit restricted if you stray from the keys C, G, D minor, E minor, A minor or D. To add to the fun, each button plays a different note on the push & pull of the bellows. Bit like a mouth organ.

 

[Limejuice]

I have a Strohmenger half-moon, baby grand piano dating from the mid 1930s.

Easily owned by the 18th C fiddle ^^

 

[loud 1]

got the 7th ever made moog prodigy,its a bit fooked but works.

i joined a signed band and got a 76' musicman stingray,my dream bass.

 

[the button]

i joined a signed band and got a 76' musicman stingray,my dream bass.

What did you like about it? I'm a bit meh about Musicmans (Musicmen? ). Fender Precision for me -- not as a bassist, purely on the sound.

 

[loud 1]

What did you like about it? I'm a bit meh about Musicmans (Musicmen? ). Fender Precision for me -- not as a bassist, purely on the sound.

I loved the tone,at the time i was playing in quite heavy bands and the sound then (96'ish) suited well,saying that it was hideous to play,but as i was using an
ampeg 8x12 cab and a 18'' and horn cab with a ampeg SVTCL head it kicked.

we had a 69' jazz too,but i hate that even more.

 

[cybertect]

a Hofner Senator acoustic 1954 <snip> I'm not presenting any competition here!

Likewise on the competition front

My oldest instrument is a Hofner Verithin bass, which dates from 1967.

 

[cybertect]

What did you like about it? I'm a bit meh about Musicmans (Musicmen? ). Fender Precision for me -- not as a bassist, purely on the sound.

I've never got on with Precisions - I prefer a Jazz out of the Fender basses I've gigged with.

Couldn't afford a Stingray, but I do rather enjoy my circa-1980 Musicman Sabre.

 

[damnhippie]

i joined a signed band and got a 76' musicman stingray,my dream bass.

damn youse to hell. can i have it please?

just to try and claw the thread back from a black hole of bassplayerspeak, i have an early 70s Premier drumkit. t'ain't very old compared to all you antiquey folk mind.

 

[weepiper]

To add to the fun, each button plays a different note on the push & pull of the bellows. Bit like a mouth organ.

Ah, the hardcore kind of concertina I can't remember whether that's English or Anglo but my big brother has a Wheatstone one which he wrestles with sometimes (he's really a pianist but also plays the piano accordion)