Marxophone. Video (She Is Still A Mystery) shows John Sebastian playing one on top of an electric keyboard.
The instrument is probably much more recognizable as the “stuttering piano” sound in the Doors’ Alabama Song.
[quote=“TreacherousCretin, post:21, topic:839011”]
Marxophone. Video (She Is Still A Mystery) shows John Sebastian playing one on top of an electric keyboard.
The instrument is probably much more recognizable as the “stuttering piano” sound in the Doors’ Alabama Song.
A junque shoppe near me had one for sale, but it needed too much work.
How cool is it that the theremin was invented 90 years ago, and is still so strange and amazing?
The sousaphone is probably far more common than anything mentioned so far, yet it fits the OP’s requirements beautifully. I doubt if more than 1% of non-musicians could supply the name when face-to-face with one.
The shamisen is a Japanese fretless stringed instrument. As one commenter on this video said, “it’s like a cool Japanese banjo you play with a paint scraper.” 
If you’ve seen the movie “Kubo and the Two Strings,” the featured instrument was a shamisen - but Kubo never played it quite like the Yoshida brothers:
The mellotron is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument, where each key drives a magnetic tape. On each tape is recorded a sample of an instrument like flute, string, or voices. But since the sound is prerecorded, you could actually get it to play anything. Here’s Paul McCartney demonstrating one: Paul McCartney demonstrates the Mellotron - YouTube
The Chapman Stick is a stringed electric instrument meant to be played like a giant guitar fretboard. Typical models have 10 or 12 strings and can produce quite a wide range. Having so many strings gives you lots of opportunities for interesting tunings as well. Demo.
The flamenco guitar at the beginning of Bungalo Bill was played using a single key on a mellotron.
Seems to me that only shows how a Mellotron could play back a prerecorded unaltered tape loop. Doesn’t really demonstrate what the instrument could do with tape loops, and the unique sounds that resulted.
Here are a couple of videos with Mike Pinder (former keyboard player with The Moody Blues, who also worked at the factory where the Mellotron was made), doing some demonstrations of the instrument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGdNTFxRy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llhy6GJcyt4Damn, you all stole hurdy gurdy.
An instrument I own, Stylophone.
Autoharp, by PJ Harvey. Is that a Dobro as well?
The various handpansget internet famous sometimes.
The Kalimba.
I own a 17 key one very similar to the one in the video. They’re relatively inexpensive on Amazon. It uses a tabular notation similar to guitar.
I’m trying to learn to play it but I’m finding it more difficult than it looks.
Wikipedia redirects “kalimba” to “mbira”, the African instrument that it’s based on.
Nitpick: the mellotron didn’t use tape loops. If you held down the key long enough, it was possible to reach the end of the tape.
Les Claypool monkeying around with a Whamola.
Yep. Eight seconds.
The Valiha, the bamboo zither of Madagascar.
The traditional version doesn’t use strings, instead the fibres of the bamboo body itself are split out and raised on bridges
The traditional San mouth bow.
I submit the melodica, and the celestette (or mini-celeste).
The ukelele may not be all THAT exotic, but plaing “Zadok the Priest”?
The mention of the melodica by romansperson reminded me of one that isn’t technically an instrument in and of itself, but acts as an adjunct to another instrument, to provide a particular sound.
The talk box is an ingenious effects pedal, typically paired with an electric guitar, which sends the sound of the instrument into the player’s mouth through a tube, allowing them to then shape the sound with their mouth; a skilled user can make their guitar seem to “talk” using the pedal.
Peter Frampton is probably the performer who’s most closely associated with the talk box, as he used it on some of his biggest hits, including “Show Me the Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” (link directs to the talk box solo in the song); it’s so closely associated with Frampton that he even poked fun at it in a Geico ad a few years ago. It’s also evident in Joe Perry’s intro on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” and in the solo on Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way.”
Similar to the Uillean pipes, the Northumbrian pipes, which have a slightly bizarre boop-y sound.
Here’s a TEDx talk about the instrument known as the Jews Harp.