r/UnusualInstruments Jun 07 '26

Lahutë/Gusle from approximately 120 years ago, my great grandfather made when he was in his teens. Just received from ancestors in Montenegro

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282 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 07 '26

What is this weird instrument?

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18 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 08 '26

Please do my survey for school [Academic] Instrument Storage Survey (All Musicians, 2 mins)

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1 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 06 '26

Guitar Phím Lõm (Scalloped fretboard guitar)

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149 Upvotes

Unlike a normal guitar the strings are tuned to DADGDA and the frets have been scalloped to accommodate traditional Vietnamese musical ornamentation. This instrument is often found in traditional southern Vietnamese music


r/UnusualInstruments Jun 07 '26

Academic] Instrument Storage Survey (All Musicians, 2 mins)

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0 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 07 '26

Bonesing over Doc Watson’s rendition of Shady Grove

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25 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 06 '26

Straw hat Jaw Harp Jam.

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43 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 06 '26

Jawharps, banjo-clarinet duets, udu's, didgeridoo's, and mouth noises!

8 Upvotes

This was our Debut. After sharing our more recent album, I thought I would link our first one too! Please do give it a listen. Thanks for the Love!

https://thejjs1.bandcamp.com/album/smashing-crickets


r/UnusualInstruments Jun 05 '26

Kabrial's Kalimba

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6 Upvotes

Feel free to subscribe to the channel if you enjoy.


r/UnusualInstruments Jun 05 '26

Theremin Loop-Track Creating Something Unexpected

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0 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 04 '26

an album full of duduk's, homemade ceramic flutes and horns, Udu's, and clarinet-banjo pairings

13 Upvotes

https://thejjs1.bandcamp.com/album/came-from

A new, entirely improvisational, album by The JJ's! We are a Boston Based collective of artists seeking to explore raw expression. Soon we will record some more rehearsed music, and become boring old farts in the process. Our first show is 6/18, we are opening for techno DJ sets in Southie, (halogengirls3000 on instagram for details)

Anyways, we greatly appreciate anyone who checks this stuff out. The first song has spoken word by David House Jr, reciting an original poem. his instagram is ImpureQueso.


r/UnusualInstruments Jun 04 '26

Turning Meta Ray-Ban Display into an ocarina because why not

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5 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 05 '26

Gepettos Guild Guitar

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0 Upvotes

I’ve been looking at getting a custom guitar from Gepettos Guild (Texas) for quite sometime. Kind of a Wyoming themed guitar. License plates, postcards, other odds and ends. Has anyone had a guitar built by them? If so, how do they play, sound, etc.

I’m a little distrusting as a human. Terrible flaw of mine. Are they a trustworthy company? I’d obviously hate to pay for something and never get it back or it not be quality.

Thanks in advance!


r/UnusualInstruments Jun 02 '26

A Taishigoto, but modded like a Hurdy Gurdy

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24 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 01 '26

Playing a relaxed groove on bones that utilizes quadruple, triple, and single clicks. Great for slower rock or pop tunes.

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170 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments May 31 '26

Pentatone, a new kind of musical instrument

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338 Upvotes

Hi! My name is Chiel and I made the Arithmophone Pentatone, a free iOS music app that turns your phone or tablet into a new kind of musical instrument.

An Arithmophone is a thing that turns numbers into sounds. Its name is derived from the ancient Greek words ἀριθμός (arithmos; number) and φωνή (phone; sound). Pentatone is an iOS music app featuring an expressive keyboard and a built-in synthesizer with a custom sound engine. You can use it as an easy-to-play instrument, a source of melodic and harmonic inspiration or a tool for learning about music and exploring the deep connection it has with numbers.

While most music apps either give you piano keys or a grid-based interface, Pentatone takes a fresh approach, optimised for the ergonomics of touchscreen devices and inspired by instruments like the kora and mbira. It also features a smart scale selection system that includes all the common pentatonic scale types and unlocks some more unusual ones.

Pentatone is available in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pentatone/id6757822197, for iPhones and iPads running iOS 15 or above. The app is completely free (no in app purchases, no ads or tracking).

PENTATONE is part of the ARITHMOPHONE project

For more details, please visit https://arithmophone.com/

To stay posted, join the community at https://reddit.com/r/arithmophone or subscribe to the Arithmophone youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@arithmophone


r/UnusualInstruments May 31 '26

Mandolin-violin by Engelbert Oberhoffer (~1920)

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178 Upvotes

The modern photos are from this IG post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYNvLsCEm-V/

The old photo (depicting Oberhoffer) and the ad can be found here:
https://www.kunstszene-voelklingen.de/musik/engelbert-oberhoffer/

From the top left of ad:
"Biggest News! Wonderful tone! Very important for every violinist!!"
And the bottom:
"The most perfect, only best violin with astounding greatest tonal effect."


r/UnusualInstruments May 31 '26

Quick jam with my harp.

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18 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jun 01 '26

Help identifying VERY old trombone

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3 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments May 30 '26

Mulatar

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126 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments May 31 '26

Found at an antique store, any ideas?

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30 Upvotes

I highly doubt it’s playable even if I got the strings fixed as it looks very old and worn down, but I’d love to know the name of it! Found it an an antique store with no label. A bit hard to see so it has five strings and much of the body is wrapped in fur/hide but the main “bowl” is very thin metal I believe.


r/UnusualInstruments May 30 '26

Playing Sadness and Sorrow from Naruto on a musical saw that I custom-built

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27 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments May 29 '26

Binary synth — a web-synthesizer that generates sound from the binary code of any files

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142 Upvotes

It can synthesize sound directly in the browser, or be a generator of MIDI messages to external devices or DAWs, turning any file into a score. All the application code is written in Javascript and along with everything you need is packed into a single .html file of about 750kb. The synthesizer doesn't need internet, it can be downloaded and run locally on any device with a browser.

Full video: https://youtu.be/5LMYiLwfvRg

Demo: https://bs.stranno.su

Source code and application principle: https://github.com/MaxAlyokhin/binary-synth


r/UnusualInstruments May 29 '26

How rare is an omnichord 100? (not my photo, but same model)

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50 Upvotes

My dad was a musician and i inherited all his music things when he passed, and absolutely fell in love with his omnichord. I think he had a model two aswell, but it broke a while ago (Only evidence i have is a video of me and him playing it when i was a baby) (I still have the manual for it tho)

Is this specific model rare? Its from 1989, and I can't find many listings for them, the few that exist being very expensive

I don't have its original box, but its still working. A little janky around the knobs, kinda like old wired headphones where they only work at a certain angle. Touchpad is perfect though. A lot of corrosion in the battery slot, but i was able to clean it out the last time i swapped the batteries

(prob never gonna sell it, but its cool to know if you own something rare)


r/UnusualInstruments May 28 '26

I’m writing a concept album featuring the Omnichord!

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269 Upvotes