Favorite Piece of Musical Gear?

[Counterfit]

I've been sounding pretty awesome on my Besson Sovereign recently, so I'm going with that. I cranked a few mean pedal Fs tonight. Now I get to do some more on bass trombone tomorrow morning and Monday night.

The Fretless Electric Bass. There is no instrument more beautiful or pleasant to the ears when played right

I'd put harp and cello ahead of it.

 

[apsterling]

Although, I do also have a marine green Yamaha Stage Custom sitting somewhere in a family friend's storage room back in my hometown. I miss her dearly. I can't imagine how out of tune she must be after all these years. Hopefully one day we will be reunited.

How do those sound compared to other kits in their range? I had the choice between a very ugly matte orange and black wrap Stage Custom with a 24" and a Pacific CXR in red sparkle wrap, with the 24" kick and went for the Pacific.

 

[macadmiral]

a simple classical guitar. profoundly beautiful

 

[LeahM]

I love the piano, only because I think it can have the best solos, and it expresses so much emotion.

But then my second favorite is the clarinet, only because I used to play it, never well but I played it nontheless. Its a very easy instrument to play.

 

[esco]

I think the guitar is awesome, but the piano is just so...beautiful. The guitar doesn't move me as much as a piano does.

 

[63dot]

I think the guitar is awesome, but the piano is just so...beautiful. The guitar doesn't move me as much as a piano does.

I agree with that.

The most moved I get is when I see a youtube of Jimi Hendrix on guitar and the whole package (voice, look, and overall guitar vibe) and BB King (guitar soloing, especially note choice, from 70 years of playing). But nothing hits me in the heart like Chopin where not only are the notes beautiful, but the feeling I get transcends time and space. His nocturnes are otherworldly, especially #2.

 

[Schtumple]

While I would say electric guitar + wah wah or univibe effects pedal, it has to be a sitar, you can achieve such a rich sound, something I've never heard even closely replicated by a guitar or any other instrument for that matter...

 

[bartelby]

Hammond B3 through a Leslie cab with a fair bit of drive.

Best sounding instrument EVER.

I just wish I could afford one.

As for favourite instrument I own either my Dean Edge 4 bass or my Roland R-8 Human Rhythm Composer.

 

[Killyp]

Nothing beats a synthesizer, or a standard SATB vocal ensemble. Two completely contrasting instruments which IMO are equally as flexible, expressive (when utilised correctly) and beautiful.

Oh an drums because they're just great fun to play

 

[macadmiral]

to me, a piano sounds very unexpressive, almost mechanical

 

[63dot]

I think the guitar is awesome, but the piano is just so...beautiful. The guitar doesn't move me as much as a piano does.

When I pick up a great Taylor, Ovation, Martin, Takamine, or any solid spruce top guitar, it sings to me. It's very sensual. I loved my all mahogany 1947 Martin, and that thing had soul for miles. It can move a person as well as a Steinway well played.

But the mechanical is also sexy in its own right. I was a techie for 8 years, so I appreciate silicon and motherboards, and any electric through a well designed 100+ effect digital multi-effects rack is really cool, too. Mechanical in every detail, but so well designed.

I liken my 1947 aged Martin to a nice hot air ballon ride, beautiful and memorable, and I liken any electric going through a high end digitech or rocktron multi-effects unit as rushing through the sky in an F-18. Both are great for what they are. I know that the 100+ multi effects unit is sterile, but it's cutting edge and fits those moments when I appreciate that.

When I go to a car show, I split my time between pre-1920 vehicles (Concours show) and the latest that Ferrari, Porsche, Acura, and Lotus have to offer with onboard computers, great performance, great gas mileage, and IP protected composite materials not even seen by NASA.

 

[OutThere]

Nothing beats a beat up old acoustic guitar as far as coolness goes.

 

[63dot]

to me, a piano sounds very unexpressive, almost mechanical

My advice, go to your local university or junior college, go to a piano booth, soundproofed as many are, and tinkle around. Come again the next day, and the day after that.

I am sure you will find sides of you that can only be expressed on a piano. I was totally untrained on piano and the dorm I lived in had a piano nobody ever used, a grand piano at that.

I went in there and discovered a lot about myself.

 

[JG271]

One that I own/can play is a piano probably.

Although some of my favorite instruments are the theremin and the ondes martenot, the latter as heard in radiohead's pyramid song. Because they both sound amazing, and the way in which you get vibrato and move between notes seems very fluid and natural, something which can lack with a piano or keyboard i feel.

 

[macadmiral]

My advice, go to your local university or junior college, go to a piano booth, soundproofed as many are, and tinkle around. Come again the next day, and the day after that.

I am sure you will find sides of you that can only be expressed on a piano. I was totally untrained on piano and the dorm I lived in had a piano nobody ever used, a grand piano at that.

I went in there and discovered a lot about myself.

haha well, I teach music for a living so I am pretty well versed in the sound of a piano

 

[63dot]

haha well, I teach music for a living so I am pretty well versed in the sound of a piano

maybe the students are mechanical, you can pull a Dead Poets Society maneuver on them to get them inspired

 

[bobfitz14]

hmm.. i love music.

 

[macadmiral]

maybe the students are mechanical, you can pull a Dead Poets Society maneuver on them to get them inspired

I'm not saying I don't like the piano... I just don't think it's very expressive. Certainly not compared to the human voice or the violin. Equally tempered instruments are just not as capable of the nuances of pitch to be expressive, especially keyboard instruments.

 

[localoid]

I'm not saying I don't like the piano... I just don't think it's very expressive. Certainly not compared to the human voice or the violin. Equally tempered instruments are just not as capable of the nuances of pitch to be expressive, especially keyboard instruments.

Preset and user defined alternate tunings have been available on MIDI keyboards for several decades. The first commercially produced keyboard I had with this feature was a Yamaha DX7-IIFD, and that was back in the mid-80s. But before that I was was doing micro-tunings in the mid-70s with various computer generated projects that involved D-A convertors connected to voltage-controlled synthesizers.

Today, alternate tunings can easily explored with virtually any MIDI keyboard instruments (or non-keyboard MIDI instruments/controllers) connected to one of the many software MIDI sequencer/DAW packages that offer a wide range alternate tunings (including Apple's Logic and even Logic Express). There's also a spec for microtonal tunings in MIDI itself if you want to further redefine the pitch of a given note or change even a micro-slice of a note.

 

[leishan]

Fretless bass...though I do like the violin when the mood is right.

 

[63dot]

I always tried to find a decent picture of my Ibanez jazz guitar to post here, but it's basically a copy of a Gibson/Epiphone ES-335 Dot priced slightly lower than the Epiphone, but here it is next to my beloved Marshall.

I wasn't thinking since the stage was so small, and we were playing outdoors facing the ocean so we had to turn it way up. Well, semi-hollowbody electrics or hollowbody electrics don't do well with feedback in front of Marshalls and the PA speakers right behind me. Duh.

 

[Counterfit]

Although some of my favorite instruments are the theremin

The theremin is almost as cool as the hurdy-gurdy.

 

[63dot]

Here's other guitar, LTD Viper 301, by ESP/LTD,

...and other hobby that prevents many a player of any instrument, worldwide, from doing their instrument six months at a time (cast, or steel pins holding bones together, and/or general pain )