Using weird things for musical instruments

[aimeeandbeatles]

What weird things have you seen being used as musical instruments

The Traveling Wilburys song, Rattled. The drum are actually refrigerator shelves.

My friend, she made an "acoustic drum set" with a pot, a jingle bell, and a chopstick.

 

[Che Guava]

Gotta love tin washboards, and PVC pipes used as digeridoos...

my favourite: the cardboard box standing bass!

 

[Truronian]

Obvious example:

Tchaikovsky and his cannons

 

[Love]

Well, i love oil drums.

 

[Shaihulud]

I have heard of a mechanical musical instrument that involves the carefully orchestrated torturing of pigs.

 

[downtown]

Phish, if I recall, used a vacuum cleaner once in a show.

Me and a buddy modified some cat food tins to give them different pitches, and rigged them up on our drum kids. I even used it for a show once...that's prob. the most unusual thing I've ever used...

 

[mangxema]

Pretty much anything done by Blue Man Group or Stomp.

And this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAk1iHW5LU8

 

[Harbringer]

My friend and I made a super high string on my guitar by lowering the action and shaving down the string with a blade, it broke pretty quick but it was un to screw around with while we had it. Open it an E four octaves higher that te highest E in standard tuning, it was hard to hear and it pinged and buzzed but you could make these trippy whistling sounds with it, kinda like free bird live but more human like and higher pitched.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

There was an episode of Top Gear where James May made the Top Gear Theme (Jessica by The Allman Brothers) using various car engines.

 

[Ecofarm]

An empty plastic water jug from a water cooler (5/10gal?) + a stick. Great bass.

 

[jeps]

A kitchen sink.

"Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink".
This amazing drum kit consisted of 105 playable pieces, including a kitchen sink! 7 bass drums, 19 tom toms, 3 snare drums, 8 octabans, 2 timbales, 4 electronic drums, 25 cymbals, 16 bells and blocks, 20 various percussion items and 1 kitchen sink, all mounted on 61 pieces of hardware!
Michael had been amassing the set for nearly 10 years and purchased everything from Drum Headquarters.
There were 37 Tama drums (and 47 pieces of Tama hardware), 25 Paiste cymbals and sounds, 16 LP items, 6 Kill On Command bass drums, 21 various brand pieces and all the drums were equipped with 39 Attack drumheads.

 

[zjl56]

I play woodwinds, but many creative brass players have been able to use all sorts of common items as mutes. Joe Nanton used a trumpet as part of his trombone mute.

 

[JohnRM]

I want to see a human skull being used as a musical instrument. I've got to believe that you'd get one hell of a sound. Probably good for a death metal band, or something.