[Silly Moustache]

Not even sure this should be here but anyway just for fun:

What instruments do you play that aren't , actually guitars ?
In about 1975, I'd moved to a strange town, knew no-one, and was in the launderette washing my shirts and , well the rest, and saw people walking to a nearby pub with black instrument cases.

I left my shirts and went to spy, and saw a bluegrass jame in process.

I collected my shirts and drove home, picked up my D35 (or was it a D28 back then) and went in to join them.

It was lovely night and I made some lasting friendships.

Better'n that, by the end of the night I had been asked to join TWO local bluegrass bands! Things were looking up.

However when I first met up with the first band they said, that they really like my playing but they didn't really need anther guitarist - what they wanted was a Dobro player! Huh?

Further, the second band I went to said that they really needed a mando player.

Well, I managed to find a (round neck) dobro in the classifieds and bought a hawaiian nut, and taught myself to play dobro - after a fashion.

But the mandolin. mmm.

My girlfriend at the time, who spent most of her time in Sweden/Danmark, took out all her savings and bought me an Ibanez F-5. (It was supposed to be a loan, that I'm ashamed to say, I never repaid).

(see old B&W pic below)

Well, although I usually ended up being the front man playing guitar, I also spent many happy gigs on dobro and mandolin, and at one time we worked out instrumentals where I would swap instruments in the same piece (show-off!)

Anyway. like various other acquisitions I upgraded and traded, and these are my (final) Dobro and mandolin.

The dobro is a Gibson made and used to be owned by a good frind who when he knew he was about to die, gave it to me - which was very kind, but I paid his wife for it when I sold my old one.
I recorded an album shortly after buying it and couldn't understand why my playing was so poor, but soon discovered that Gibson made dobros were usually about 1/4" out in intonation so after a lot of work and replacement cone and compensating spider (from Beard) it became a fine usable instrument.

I have lost count of the mandolins I've had, I died have a British made Mike Vanden once but most were Czech made, ans is my last one - by Jiri Lebeda in made in 2005. It is the perfect mandolin for me - deep neck, wide fretboard , European spruce and great workmanship. It just gets better and better!

So, what are your "other" instruments?