# Bizarre Musical Instruments **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306 "2011-06-04T14:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ee7513/32.png) [@Kim\_o\_the\_Concrete\_Jungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kim_o_the_Concrete_Jungle)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/21 "2011-06-09T06:41:33Z")
Lagerphone’s are bizarre? ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/22 "2011-06-09T08:09:02Z")
Quite a few can be found at[Windworld](http://windworld.com/features/gallery/) - including the Daxophone (I am totally going to build one of those!). My favorite as far as names go has to be _Barry Hall’s Hybrid Globotubular Horn_. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/23 "2011-06-09T13:44:10Z")
I was amazed to discover there is a whole [Mandolin family](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin#Mandolin_family) of musical instruments. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/24 "2011-06-09T14:18:14Z")
The butt flute and nose whistle. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/25 "2011-06-09T14:48:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Buddy Rich playing a theater. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf9muJjmI2g](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf9muJjmI2g) Here’s Bobby McFerrin [playing a theater](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk) slightly differently. (Speaking of weird instruments, Bobby McFerrin.) Since I was beaten to the waterphone, I’ll put out the [Xaphoon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLuh6fI_Evc), a cross between a recorder and a clarinet. Vienna Teng’s percussionist, Alex Wong, uses both, and a variety of other odd music-makers. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/26 "2011-06-09T15:51:10Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I was amazed to discover there is a whole [Mandolin family](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin#Mandolin_family) of musical instruments. The same is true of [balalaikas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balalaika). ---
**Author:** ![bahia\_hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@bahia\_hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahia_hombre)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/27 "2011-06-09T16:18:16Z")
Not really an instrument and not particularly bizarre, but here you go: > **[Talk box](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_box)** > > A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sounds of the instrument. Typically, a talk box directs sound from the instrument into the musician's mouth by means of a plastic tube adjacent to a vocal microphone. The musician controls the modification of the instrument's sound by changing the shape of... ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/28 "2011-06-09T16:29:08Z")
A friend turned me on to [Noseflute](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj6G0vSrv8c&feature=related)at a party a few years ago. It’s as simple as whistling once you figure it out, but it’s always funny. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/29 "2011-06-09T16:36:50Z")
Not really bizarre but at least unusual,[The Stick](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huWju0Ntn5g) Watched a demo at the Namm show and loved it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/30 "2011-06-09T16:54:42Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Not really bizarre but at least unusual,[The Stick](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huWju0Ntn5g) > > Watched a demo at the Namm show and loved it. One of my favorite homemade instruments - not for performance, but for practice - looks a lot like the Stick. It’s like a guitar head, tuner, neck, frets and strings, but no body. He rubber banded a stethoscope onto the back of it so he can practice in airports and on the plane without disturbing anyone with either the sound or the large size of a guitar in a plane seat, but he can hear himself play! My ex is into unusual instruments. My favorite is the hank drum made from a propane tank, like this [one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_f-j7Bh1II&feature=related). The one that gets the most questions and attention isn’t really all that “weird,” it’s just not played much in American music: the [shruti box.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8JAYBEO2h8&feature=related) (The steady drone is the shruti box, the changing tone is the singer.) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/31 "2011-06-09T17:14:01Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > Theremin is what I came in to say. > > [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ywH1Vj8_U)’s my favorite performance. Epicness ensues at 2:45. I love the fact that the inventor of this instrument was kidnapped and forced to become a Soviet spy-scientist. So surreal, yet true. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306/32 "2011-06-10T00:57:17Z")
The Tibetan [Kangling](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k94DGacNEPg&feature=related)…traditionally made from a [human femur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling). And used to summon hungry spirits and demons. :eek: Metal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bizarre-musical-instruments/584306.md?page=1)