Unusual Rock Instuments

[Jack the Ripper]

I was thinking about this recently. AC/DC used a half ton bell and cannons in their music. Metallica used a sitar. Zeppelin uses harmonicas (not too unusual). Some other metal band uses a flute. Any other unusual/awesome instruments used?

 

[Perfection]

I once saw this man described to me as a "rock" muscian, and he was holding what appeared to be a six-stringed viola, but it was very oddly shaped the hole was circular and in the middle of the soundboard. He also didn't have a bow and strummed it with this triangular piece of material. Have any of you perchance seen something like this?

 

[mrtn]

Einstürzende Neubauten use lots of strange stuff for their music, including power drills, shopping trolleys, jet turbines, plastic oil cans, silk and falling sand.
For example they have a song called "Compressors in the dark" which they play live when they need to recharge their compressors.

 

[homeyg]

I was watching VH1 Classics the other day and a Rolling Stones video came on and one of the members was playing some sort of string instrument. I just don't know how to describe it. All I can say is that it wasn't a guitar.

 

[Yom]

You haven't seen strange instruments until you've seen Aphex Twin. He makes his own.

 

[Keirador]

Interpol has used a church organ.

 

[Rhymes]

Jethro Tull is a good exemple of an unusual instrument used as the main riff line.

 

[Syterion]

Radiohead used violin bows on guitars for "Climbing up the Walls."

That's the only specific thing I can think of.

 

[wilbill]

Morphine, a Boston band from the early 90's, was composed of drums, sax, and stand up bass. No guitars, no keyboards. I still listen to their Cure For Pain CD fairly often.

Several bands have used the theremin. None that I know of have been particularly succesful.

 

[Knowze Gungk]

Pink Floyd have used several species of small Furry animals.

And lets not forget Metallica using the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Although similar has probably been done before, I can't think of one.

 

[Masquerouge]

Man, Jean-Michel Jarre invented the laser harp, that's gotta count as something.
And wasn't there a band that used big plastic tubes ? Like, "The Tubes" ?

And one undergroung heavy metal French band used motorcycles exhaust in their songs...

 

[Oryctolagus]

Gentle Giant, a prog rock band of the 70's used over 30 instruments, including:vibes, violin, cello, trumpet, tenor sax, alto sax, tambourine, clarinet, various recorders (the wind instruments), Shulberry (their invention), tympani, donkey's jawbone, cowbells and more.

 

[Paalikles]

Gaate (of Norway) uses the fiddle (or is it the violin) - they play "folk rock"

Gaate=Gåte when written in Norwegian

 

[The Last Conformist]

My father has an ancient record with a song which includes a machinegun. Unfortunately, I can't recall either the name of the song or of the band.

Tchaikovsky used cannon in 1812.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Jonathan Davis of KoЯn plays bagpipes...

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Apocolyptica's use of Cello's is a little unusual. However most of their Metallica covers sound fantastic.

 

[JoeM]

I'm learning the cavaquinho, a brazilian form of ukelele though I'm not sure I'll be able to put it into a rock song

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

The actually weirdest instrument I can imagine is the Okarina (a keramic flute looking a bit like a chicken leg) used by The Troggs in the Trashpunk classic "Wild Thing".
That's soo cool. Almost anyone covering this thing turned it into the usual boring Guitar rock solo...

 

[WickedSmurf]

I was in a schoolband (around 11 or 12 years of age) with drums, guitars, tambourine, bass et cetera. For one song (Paul Anka's Diana) we also had a güiroplayer. Does that count?

 

[anarres]

No-one mentioned the Hurdygurdy yet!

Have to admit, only 1 rock band I know of uses it (local to Cambridge).