An interesting collection of gear photos.

August 12, 2009 3:05 PM

Gear porn from Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle/Chris & Cosey fame.
posted by item (17 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble



Cool post. I remember back in the early '80s lamenting to my rocker buddies about how much electronic music sucks! Like "Rap", we thought it would go away in a couple of years! Ha, what goofs we were.

Thanks for the memories.
posted by snsranch at 4:20 PM on August 12, 2009 [1 favorite]


I sometimes feel a weird desire to acquire weird gear, just to feel like I'm doing it right. I like the stuff I own, but it's all like "oh here is a reasonably good acoustic instrument" and never "holy shit look at the dials on that thing".
posted by cortex at 9:11 AM on August 13, 2009


How many of you Mefi musicians have flickr pages? Any of you have collections there of your stuff? Or anywhere else on the web? It'd be cool to see some of that. Our Own Karlos the Jackal has a fine collection of mostly acoustic instruments. Check 'em out.

I've been meaning to do the same with my collection of percussion, gadgets and such, but haven't gotten around to it yet...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:04 AM on August 15, 2009


That is a LOT of gear.
posted by bigmusic at 5:12 AM on August 15, 2009


Ha! I've got that same little sheet-fed music box thing that Karlos has.

I've been sort of intending to document my instruments for a few years now and keep not doing it; maybe I should get around to it now, yeah.
posted by cortex at 9:10 AM on August 15, 2009


slobber lust drool

Er...what? I'm getting a camera for my birthday (not a nice one, but not a phone). I'll take some pictures of my not-nearly-so-impressive gear.
posted by nosila at 1:17 PM on August 15, 2009


I share the gear acquisition bug - I have far too many guitars - but lately I've been questioning the wisdom of this.... When I was a young "pro" musician and perpetually broke I only had one guitar, a lovely little 1963 Gibson SG Standard that had been through various owners prior to me and had been "improved" - Bigsby removed, Schallers instead of the original keystones, DiMarzio replacing one of the PAFs etc. It was stolen. Point is - I think that only having the one guitar forced me to be much more inventive aurally because I simply had no option. Same with the Strat I used as my sole instrument for many years subsequently - an antique sunburst Ultra which I still have, and cherish - it's a beautiful instrument. I'm not sure that the myriad Gibsons, Martins, other Strats, a Tele and a Yamaha SA2200 that comprise my collection has really made me a better player. This will sound like wank I'm sure, but you have to sort of fall in love with a guitar to get the best out of it - you have to get to know its quirks and "resonances". And if you spread yourself too thinly between a shitload of instruments you never get to "bond" with a single instrument. As I said that probably sounds dumb.......but I think there's something in being faithful to one main instrument. Go figure....
posted by MajorDundee at 2:52 PM on August 15, 2009


Great idea flapjax! It's been a while since I've posted anything to flickr. This is a great excuse to start again.

Major...if I write about the loss of my ES-335, I will cry. It was a '71, subdued mahogany sunburst. Looked black until one got up close to see the golden threads of wood grain.

*weeps...almost silently*
posted by snsranch at 7:45 PM on August 15, 2009


Hello! I came into this thread hoping it would be a collection of MeFite's music equipment, but all that's here is my stuff! Get on it, people!

Ha! I've got that same little sheet-fed music box thing that Karlos has.

Interestingly, the paper that's in it in that photo is the "sheet music" for the seed track (and the first thing you hear) of the Exquisite Corpse collaboration.

You can get something similar for a very reasonable price from Think Geek -- here -- but if you're serious about your tiny plinky noises, you can do what I did and get one from the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht. (I got it mail-order; I've never been there.) Huh, it looks like they've re-done their website -- I can't find it on there anymore... anyway, their version has an extra half-octave range and a much richer sound than the Think Geek version, but either one is fun.

And if you spread yourself too thinly between a shitload of instruments you never get to "bond" with a single instrument.

I can see how this would be the case with someone who is a musician; as I am not, I've never had that experience. :)
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 9:37 PM on August 15, 2009


Oh what fun. OK, here's my collection (except for the Doraemon guitar which I included because I thought you all might like to see it).

There's also a drum machine and a couple more pedals lurking around somewhere but no photos of them.
posted by awfurby at 11:29 PM on August 17, 2009


A not-quite complete gallery of our setup (just the three of us*): Flutes/stylophones/sticks/jingle shaker, same flutes (assembled)/mandolin, Saxes/flaut/organ, blurry perc setup**, Keytars***/NES/QSR/Megaphone/random perc/other assorted electronic blah, effects rig/theremin/horn/DS, poorly photographed cablegasm****, and most importantly, mascot.

*First photo, left to right: man vs sun, Pheatherwait, me.
**cowbell from next pic is also part of it, couch and papasan footstool are part of it, flutes and mando, obviously, are not.
***One of these keytars doesn't work, but it's still awesome to have two of them.
****both blurry photos are entirely my fault. I have shaky hands.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 7:46 PM on August 19, 2009


Not pictured: Frumpet, Valve Trombone, Super Trumpet, Pair of Casio PT-80s, Fake Casio Concertmate, Piccolo (you all know what one looks like), melodica, kazoo, GameBoy, any number of other random instruments we have/find/turn into instruments.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 7:52 PM on August 19, 2009


Crap, forgot to mention the pair of acoustic guitars that no one can play well.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 8:01 PM on August 19, 2009


Started photo-documenting my collection today. Made a reasonable dent in the percussion collection (especially drums). I'll be adding a lot more to this flickr set over the next few days, hopefully, but here it is for now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:42 AM on August 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


The drums are beautiful flap, but I have to say I was initially drawn to the tatami mat. I miss mine...
posted by awfurby at 4:59 AM on August 20, 2009


Yeah, tatami rules. I love it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:16 AM on August 20, 2009


Just added a whole pile of new photos to my instruments set at flickr, bringing the total up to 130 photographs.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:40 AM on August 29, 2009


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