so...what instruments do you play?

[snuffinthepunk]

how long you been playin? got any cool stories about it?

I've been playin guitar for like 14 years, but not very studiously, so I can only call myself "decent." I'm pickin up the mandolin now though and kinda wonderin if anyone around here plays it or other country/bluegrass/old-timey style instruments.

[JGriffin]

Well, guitar for 30 years, bass for about 20, on and off...I've performed on bass but wouldn't call myself a "bass player." I can also make some things happen on keyboard instruments but not with any agility, more like three-finger chords and one-finger melodies, and never at the same time. I can keep a beat on drums but that's about it. I've dabbled in dulcimer and banjo, and I just finished a bunch of work that involved quite a bit of slide-whistle and kazoo work.

[philbo]

Guitar & Bass, about 43 years.
Harmonica about 35.
Piano about 35 also.
Drums about 10.
I also do a lot of 'fake' instruments on midi keyboards, like sax, flute, various woodwinds and so forth.

My first real guitar was a Teisco-Del Rey, which cost about 20 bucks at a department store in 1967 or so. I spent the next 3 years teaching myself to set up the action, intonation, truss rod, dressing frets, etc., taking the thing apart about 40 times... and playing during every waking moment I wasn't in school or whatever...

I didn't really have an amp for a long time. I used a piece of electronics test gear that my Dad had built, called a Knight Kit Signal Tracer. It was basically a tube amp with about 60 dB of gain, but only 2 watts of power feeding a 3 inch speaker. It made the most horrendously beautiful fuzz tones I've ever heard.

My first band was with some friends from 7th grade, around 1966. We covered 'Little Bit of Soul', 'Louie Louie', and a couple of early Monkees songs, but did mostly originals.
________
Pornstars blowjob

[mikehattem]

I play multiple instruments but I am first and foremost a guitarist, singer... But I have also become "barely proficient" enough to play harmonica, mandolin, keyboards, bass, and lap steel... On my records I play everything except the bass including arranging the occasional string/brass parts which I play through MIDI... Mandolin was the first that I learned (after guitar) and I picked it up pretty quick thanks to my previous guitar experience... its very easy to get the chords and basic strumming techniques down, now if you wanna rip licks like David Grisman thats another story...

Mike

[KWEBB]

TRombone/ dobro/pedal steel/ greek Bouzouki/ guitar/ pots and pans/water/birds/
been on 40+ albums. Still tryin to catch a Grackle cause they have the sound I'm lookin for.

[jmblack]

I?ve been singing and playing guitar for about 11 years. As a songwriter who can't find a lot of people who share my vision, I learned drums and bass as well. I'm not really your "guitar player who plays bass." I know the difference and I play them differently. I've been playing drums for about a year now and I think I might prefer drumming to guitar playing.

I find it easiest to play/record everything and then give that to band members to learn. A lot of people don't like that. Especially if I give them sheet music.

My main instrument is the song and the recording gear.

[thethingwiththestuff]

i've been playing drums.......wow, i guess almost 13 years now. that's the instrument i've studied. i sing harmonies most of the time i play drums. i've played guitar and bass about the same, 12 years or so. i can get by on keyboards, accordion a bit less so... i've got a handle on the upright bass and pitched percussion, but no brass or woodwinds right now.

i use some weird little whirlwind mixer with no headroom and two parallel mono outputs to make feedback squalls and to mix contact mics i've put on my drums and some stand mounted junk percussion through a delay.

[mjau]

I used to be a pretty good bassist, but since I haven't played in an active band in about 4 years, I definitely notice how much I've slacked. I can play big, dumb guitar and big, dumb keys also. Still figuring out how to play drums in a big, dumb way.

[Randy]

I'll play any instrument you throw at me. Whether or not you want to hear what I do with it, that's your deal.

I play guitar in the band I'm in now, and before that I played theremin, harmonica, trumpet, guitar, organ, synth, fiddle, jaw harp, and piano in the same band with a different singer and band name. Gigs are a lot easier nowadays- guitar, amp, pedal.

I consider myself a bass player though. The parts I play on guitar are rhythm guitar and then instead of leads, bass lines I would be playing if we didn't already have an amazing bassist.

(edit- I didn't add how long- I started playing bass when I was 14, and I'm 41 now, so that's like what? 10 years or so?)

[Rigsby]

I played some clarinet as a kid, but not much, i picked that up again a few years ago.

Took up bass at 14 but didn't really get all that into it, it sat around for a couple of years til i was 16 and started taking an interest in the guitar. thatwas my main instrument for years. Over the years i've become less interested in the guitar for the most part, but still play bass a fair bit.

Started playing drums at practices whenever i could, became the drummer for a few indie rock groups in my late teens and early twenties, i guess this lead me onto my love of percussion, which i play a lot. Mostly hand-held stuff, but also berimbau and some stick perc.

Took up glockenspiel a couple of years ago, i play that a fair bit.

I'm sort of more interested in organic found sounds than anything else these days, but i play guitar, bass, drums, perc, berimbau, glockenspiel, clarinet, a bit of piano and bow anything that moves.

[cjogo]

Mainly produce...but play the Kurzweil and these drum pads




http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/recording_studio.htm

[nystrec]

man you like the Beattles

[ubertar]

Started at 15 with guitar (got it for my 15th birthday) and have been playing since... got a sitar in college and took lessons for a while, and started making instruments then too. Picked up other stringed instruments from various parts of the world and play to varying degrees... oud, rebab, p'ipa-- took lessons on the oud for a while. Made more instruments... studied javanese gamelan... made more instruments... started playing hand drums/percussion: dumbek, djembe, a native american frame drum and recently, tabla, along with various shakers, a snare, bells, a gong, etc. Mostly I play the stuff I make, to be free of the expectations and associations people have with traditional instruments, but I got an acoustic guitar recently (up til now I've been almost exclusively an electric player) and I've been playing that every day. There are pics of the stuff I've made at www.ubertar.com/instruments. Oh yeah, and circuit-bent electronics, too.

[Jeremy Garber]

I started about 13 years ago when I was 14. My dad gave me his old Goya acoustic that was severely warped, but that's what I learned on. Honestly, ever since I started in music, my dream has been to have my own studio even if it's just to record my own music. Over the years I've accumulated a bunch of instruments and stuff that I use to record, and I finally got a dedicated room for everything 2 years ago when I bought my house. I play guitar, bass, drums (my fav), vox, a little piano/keyboard, and whatever else I can fiddle with.

[treble king]

I play guitar, drums, harmonica, and keys. Though I think I can hold down the bass if I need to. Sometimes I wish I was great at one, rather than (somewhat) serviceable at all of them.

The coolest multi-instrumental thing was playing drums at First Ave in Mpls, then a year or so later, guitar...in the same band.

Quite a different experience - drumming was much less scary, and I got to look at the audience more. It didn't help that my guitar was a cobbled together SG, and was out of tune most of the set.

I'm still waiting for all the skinflute players to announce themselves.