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Instrumental Oddities T-Shirt This new shirt features unique, one-of-a-kind, obsolete and otherwise lesser-known or strange-sounding instruments. Each instrument is real, or was at one point, even the cheese-augmented Gruyèrophone. Some, like the Jew's harp, are fairly common but only scarcely heard in popular music; others, such as Gentle Giant's Shulberry, are unique to a band or person. For a complete list and explanation of all included instruments, see the bottom of this page. Hover over the swatches below to see the color variations. Add a shirt to your cart using the drop down menus below the swatches. (OR, if you prefer to purchase them using an Etsy account, click on the swatches to find them for sale at the PhippsArt Etsy store.) |
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Key to the instruments:
*Aquaggaswack- Pan lids take on a new life as gongs and bells. Only a portion of this grand set of miscellaneous gongery fit onto the t-shirt.
*Australian Fences (bowed)- Says violinist Jon Rose “A lot of people just look at fences as fences – [I] see millions of miles of musical instruments.”
*Bladder Pipe- The predecessor to the bagpipe, made from a pig’s bladder. Great for background entertainment during a meal of haggis and potatoes.
*Claghorn- Created by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, the Claghorn is the “offspring of an unlikely midnight pairing of ethnic bamboo flute and a saxophone mouthpiece. At the bottom was taped the plastic bell end of a child's toy trumpet,” held together with parcel tape. The Tull tune “'Dharma for One' soared on the searing strains of the mighty Claghorn, if a little loosely in terms of pitch and reliability”.
*Clappers- Fairly basic, ancient percussion instruments- also good for extinguishing torches.
*Cloud-Chamber Bowls- The invention of composer Harry Partch, these are played with soft mallets and produce a bell-like tone. Due to their fragile, glass composition, it is not recommended to “rock out” on these.
*Crumhorn- A renaissance-era J-shaped woodwind, used to great effect by the 70's group "Gryphon".
*Daxophone- Invented by Hans Reichel, a variety of wooden tongues can be attached to the body and be bowed or plucked to produce a wide variety of VERY unique sounds.
*Drumbone- One of the many instruments created and played by the Blue Man Group. Played like a drum, altered in pitch like a trombone.
*Dubreq Stylophone- A miniature stylus-operated synthesizer invented in 1967. Pull this one out when there’s a lull in the party.
*Gruyèrophone (aka Swisscheesophone)- Unique to the French experimental band Dün, wind player Pascal Vandenbulcke used to describe the Gruyèrophone as "a wind instrument … with a tuba mouthpiece and a square-shaped bell into which small bits of Swiss cheese are introduced. The technique is not unlike that of the bagpipe. When the player is tired of blowing the instrument, the small holes in the swiss cheese then burst, taking over from the performer and allowing him to catch his breath".
*Jew’s Harp (aka Mouth Harp)- Probably the least obscure instrument to make the shirt. Be careful not to chip a tooth!
*Kudu Horn- Um, the horn of a Kudu. Animal horns have been used as instruments for many, many years. This one made the shirt mostly because of it’s unique, twisted shape.
*Lagerphone- An Australian instrument covered in beer-bottle tops- a variation of the traditional aboriginal instrument using shells.
*Musical Saw- I once “borrowed” my sister’s violin bow to see if I could get any sound out of our saw, and without much success. It probably did a number on her bow, too.
*Octavin- A single-reed woodwind invented in 1893. It never caught on, which would make it that much cooler if you decide to learn to play it.
*Quena- If you live in the Andes, this isn’t so obscure to you. The phrase "vamos a ir a la quena" may still bring back some painful memories…
*Rastrophone- Italian film composer Mario Nascimbene devised a percussive instrument which he termed the Rastrophone. It gave a great thud sound with a creepy bone rattling type after effect. In 1981 he revealed that the Rastrophone was actually a garden rake.
*Shulberry- Dave Zammit, once sound engineer for the 70’s progressive rock band “Gentle Giant”, explains that the band asked him to make an instrument for concerts that “had 3 strings that could be tuned to the chord used at the beginning and within the song Playing the Game, thus making it unneccessary to purchase a Marimba as was used on the Album”.
*Theremin- You’ve heard this in your favorite B-movies, much to the chagrin of the more serious players. Pitch and volume are controlled by the hands’ relative position to two metal antennas.
*Tromboon- "Professor" Peter Schickele called it "a hybrid —that's the nicer word— constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both.” (Look up “P. D. Q. Bach”).
*Wal Triple-Neck Bass- Created at Rick Wakeman’s request and eventually given to his Yes bandmate Chris Squire. “What’s the point?”, many ask when they see its apparent excess. Listen to the track “Awaken” and you’ll get the point.
*Whamala- A single-stringed electronic instrument inspired by the washtub bass, made famous by Les Claypool of Primus.
*Zither- Many cultures have their version of this stringed instrument. But what can be cooler than one shaped like a crocodile?