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Five you like and Five you hate


Chordite

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I know we all love electric guitar which is why we are here, but the sax thread left me wondering what other instruments we specially like and which we hate?

So since the forum is a bit slow I thought 5 of each (players optional). Likelihood of agreement approaches zero :) I'll kick off;

 

Like

 

Rhodes (Steely Dan )

Flute ( Focus, Tull)

Grand Piano (Keith Jarret [Koln concert])

Violin ( R.V.W. Lark ascending)

Horn (Miles Davis mode)

 

Hate

 

Banjo

Bagpipes

Honkey tonk Piano

Saxophone

Squeeze box

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I love...

 

Electric piano (Steely Dan, Glen Campbell)

Arp Odyssey, and whatever Moog and Roland synths YMO were using.

Drums (Expressive drummers like Steve Gadd, Phil Collins, and Bill Ward)

Sax (Andy MacKay)

Koto

 

There's something to be said for a good producer and knowing how to arrange reverb and delay.

 

I hate...

 

Harmonica, especially synthesized.

Self-indulgent Gospel Organ

Trombone (I played it for several years)

Xylophone

Anything that has a Wah pedal connected that isn't guitar.

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LIKE:

 

Larry Conklin

Ed Roman

Genuine Vintage Guitars (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Martin, Rickenbacker, etc... from the old days)

Miller High Life

Alexander Dumble

 

DISLIKE:

Made in China, North Korea, Iran crapola

Slobs who take gear pictures in gross houses

People who are racist

Guns n Roses, Poison, Bang Tango and all those cock rockers

Obama

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LIKE:

 

Larry Conklin

Ed Roman

Genuine Vintage Guitars (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Martin, Rickenbacker, etc... from the old days)

Miller High Life

Alexander Dumble

 

DISLIKE:

Made in China, North Korea, Iran crapola

Slobs who take gear pictures in gross houses

People who are racist

Guns n Roses, Poison, Bang Tango and all those cock rockers

Obama

 

pretty much getting off the topic of instruments

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LIKE:

 

Larry Conklin

Ed Roman

Genuine Vintage Guitars (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Martin, Rickenbacker, etc... from the old days)

Miller High Life

Alexander Dumble

 

DISLIKE:

Made in China, North Korea, Iran crapola

Slobs who take gear pictures in gross houses

People who are racist

Guns n Roses, Poison, Bang Tango and all those cock rockers

Obama

 

 

Oh the irony in your dislike list. Priceless.

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Like:

Rock-n-Roll Organ: Keef Hartley, Badger, Spooky Tooth

Rock-n-Roll Piano: Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Leon Russell, Roy Bittain

Four-Piece Marching Band Percussion: Snare, Tom, Bass, Cymbal circulating C-Deck at Ohi Stadium on football Saturday

Tambourine: Specifically, Motown Tambourine

Effectively-Placed Rock Tuba: Like in Public Image Limited's Rise, or Springsteen's Wild Billy's Circus Story

 

Hate:

Banjo: Other than in Alternative, like The Pogues or Mumford & Sons

Pedal Steel: Technically, it's a guitar, but I still hate it. I wish Ben Harper would just pick up a convetional guitar again.

"Hand Drums": Any of those small things that an Everyman can play and call himself a musician.

Resonator Guitars: Dobros, whatever. They are guitars, but they're annoying as all get out. These things are a screaming harbinger of guaranteed suckage.

Ukelele: I don't know if these are real instruments or just toys, but I don't understand why a grown man would play one.

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First let me just qualify this by saying that I actually like a lot more instruments than I dislike. Oboes and tubas and cellos and xylophones, nuthin but pure unadulterated love but they wouldn't make my top 5.

 

Pure:

Harp - read harmonica, the kind played by Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite and Mickey Raphael

Flute - Paul Horn, Ian Anderson, and I love what Country bands like Marshall Tucker, and Firefall did with it

Keyboards but very picky preferring only the farfisa, the vox continental and regular piano

Sax - where would any of us free form guitar wankers be without John Coltrane and dare I say Paul Desmond?

Violin - as organic as any instrument in the hands of a master like yo yo ma

 

Not:

ukulele - c'mon really?

turn table - scratch this

computer - that's cheating

super bass beat box - I'm going to sneak up and scare the crap out of you at the next light

kazoo - more of a toy than a uke

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Like:

Sax - when used tastefully

Trumpet - when used tastefully

Piano

Mandolin

Marimba

 

Dislike:

Sax (more often than not in rock/pop)

Trumpet (more often than not in rock/pop)

Bagpipes (of course)

The kind of electronic synth drums that were everywhere in the 80's

Trombone (are there ANY examples of a trombone being a good addition to a track?)

 

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...

Hate:

..."Hand Drums": Any of those small things that an Everyman can play and call himself a musician.

Resonator Guitars: Dobros, whatever. They are guitars, but they're annoying as all get out. These things are a screaming harbinger of guaranteed suckage.

Ukelele: I don't know if these are real instruments or just toys, but I don't understand why a grown man would play one.

 

Ahh I was with you all the way up to these three. Bongos and Resonators almost made my "like" list. Ukeleles? Mostly harmless IMO

 

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... The kind of electronic synth drums that were everywhere in the '80s ...
That's a good one. As we sit here today it's hard to comprehend how prevalant those things were; across genres, or with new and established artists ...
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I'm not sure I hate any instruments. There are times when I dislike how one is played... like a badly played harmonica at an open blues jam. But I've got love for any and all instruments.

 

(Glad to see all the flute love here... that was my first instrument).

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I don't have any instruments I dislike. It all comes down to how they are used within a musical composition. If someone like Frank Zappa had used Jews Harp in one of his songs it would be allot different then some foot stompin hick tune you commonly relate that instrument to. Using instruments in new and highly creative ways is what great music is all about. You don't have to include the music genre commonly used with that instrument.

 

For example, back in my album collection some place I have a recording of and experimental 6 string Banjo that was recorded with nylon strings. The music wasn't your normal 3 chord hillbilly music, instead it was classical guitar done on a nylon string banjo. Though there were some characteristics of a banjo tone, it was actually very interesting to hear, especially playing that music.

 

I could see someone using some pitch shifter or harmonizer on a Jews harp to change the mouth tones they produce to get something totally new from them if someone takes the time to really experiment with them. Harmonica might be another. The reeds move like guitar strings so. I can see some kind of inductive pickup being installed in one to get the kind of driven guitar tones you'd get from and electric guitar which would make the instrument into something very different from what we're used to. Then its just a matter of musical composition to really change the instruments character.

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That's a good one. As we sit here today it's hard to comprehend how prevalant those things were; across genres, or with new and established artists ...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps_DtvzUJlE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcDxw6O1oRQ

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOymGhO_fk

 

Because a bunch of British and American guys thought Japan was cool. Even with early Western synth innovators like Devo and The Human League, their style drastically changed when YMO, Akiko Yano, and Isao Tomita innovated them. Both Japan (with David Sylvian) and Duran Duran have direct ties to Japanese artists like YMO and Masami Tsuchiya.

 

The only thing I can't figure out is if Tony Banks was listening to them, because Genesis' Duke was a big influence on 80's synth bands too.

 

 

That was 1980, though.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-K7JE8lKY

 

Not a whole lot of synth here. So, Japanese groups and a few select British ones were innovating before it hit the pop airwaves.

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LIKE:

 

Larry Conklin

Ed Roman

Genuine Vintage Guitars (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, Martin, Rickenbacker, etc... from the old days)

Miller High Life

Alexander Dumble

 

DISLIKE:

Made in China, North Korea, Iran crapola

Slobs who take gear pictures in gross houses

People who are racist

Guns n Roses, Poison, Bang Tango and all those cock rockers

Obama

 

 

 

so, bg... are you still enjoying your mojave ma200 mic's?... i have a pair of ma 100s and really dig 'em.... great chinese-made microphones yeah?

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LIKE:

 

1) Electric guitar. I really dig sustaining, melodic, 'soaring' lead tones.

2) Pedal steel guitar. Yeah, I know a lot of people find the sound irritating. I owned a cheap one for a few months, but sold it - it was just creating GAS for a "real" PSG and you can't touch one for less than $1,000, new or used. I'm not really a country fan either. It's a fascinating and unusual instrument, I'd love to have another one someday.

3) Moog Synthesizer - Wendy (Walter) Carlos' "Switched on Bach" still has some of the most amazing and organic sounding synth tones I've ever heard.

4) the HAMMOND ORGAN. You haven't lived until you hear one with the big Leslie speaker in a LIVE setting. The sound whirls around you in a way no stereo recording can adequately capture.

5) [[[[[bASS))))) . So satisfying, like biting into a big thick steak.

 

Honorable mention to: Wurlitzer electric piano: dirtier and more organic sounding than a Rhodes.

 

 

DON'T LIKE

 

1) Saxophone (I let one of my grade school buddies talk me into playing sax in school band, instead of drums. big mistake).

2) Scratchy, screechy "fiddle" - Dave Matthew's band is big offender here.

3) Bad 70's synth leads. "Wings" was especially bad, even Sir Paul admitted as much in an interview.

4) The ubiquitous DX7 electric piano patch. 80's power ballads, bleah!

5) The slide guitar opening on Freebird. Must be a Peavey combo inside a cardboard box. Distortion without sustain. smiley-indifferent Poor intonation too, gives it that sour, wailing cat sound.

 

I sort of like those cheesy 80's syndrums, the fills sound like "douche da douche douche douche da da douche douche. pa-peeeeww!"

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