Great music recorded on cheap instruments

[bassliner50]

Ornette Coleman and his plastic saxophone?

If I am not mistaken Charlie parker occasionally played a plastic alto.

 

[ardgedee]

When I lived in Tanzania as a kid, at celebrations in the village where my parents worked, guys would be drumming for hours. There was one guy who sounded particularly good as a part of the ensemble. His instrument? A rusted-piece of sheet metal. It made a big impression on me.

Great musicians pick up an instrument, and if they get a sound they thing is cool, they're immediately thinking of a way to use it. The notion that great musicians would only play expensive instruments seems completely alien to me. When Jerry Allison was slapping his knees on Buddy Holly records was he wearing expensive pants? I understand that in classical music and other highly standardized music, instruments performing to spec is all important, but in pop, rock, and some jazz, musicians are just looking for a sound that works. It could be anything.

Konono No.1 build most of their equipment from scratch -- not only the instruments, but even some of the mics and the PA system. You can see that gear in action in this video from their breakout album, released when the band had been around for a mere 40 years


That album got popular enough to land them backing work for Bjork and greater recognition in Europe and the US, and it's interesting to see what of their homemade kit they opted to keep and what they replaced a few years (and a third-generation bandleader) later...

 

[ElectroVibe]

Ok....maybe I should change the title to this...

Was Any Yacht Rock Ever Recorded on Squier Guitars?

 

[fishdreams]

Cooper-Moore on the Diddley Bow, which is a $10,- contact mic on a Home Depot 2x4 with an old double bass e string nailed to it.

Hearing him play that live was the best bass tone i have ever heard come out of an amplifier.

You can hear him play it on Darius Jones' Man'ish Boy, here starting on the Diddley bow at 6 minutes in

 

[dave hope]

Is anyone aware of any great recordings done with cheap instruments?

I'm talking about clearly heard instruments on songs that have endured, and are held in regard as great moments in history of rock, pop, etc.

Music that sounds great when played through the finest sound system.

everything early beatles

 

[Thegreatzambini]

Mosrite and Fender Precison aren’t crap.
Ramones are among my all time favs btw.

He never said they were crap, your subconscious filled in that part

 

[ardgedee]

Oh hey, harmonicas don't cost a lot.

 

[J-Mags]

Konono No.1 build most of their equipment from scratch -- not only the instruments, but even some of the mics and the PA system. You can see that gear in action in this video from their breakout album, released when the band had been around for a mere 40 years


That album got popular enough to land them backing work for Bjork and greater recognition in Europe and the US, and it's interesting to see what of their homemade kit they opted to keep and what they replaced a few years (and a third-generation bandleader) later...

That's cool. It seems as though they mostly stuck with the old stuff, with the exception of amplifiers, fx, and trap kit. They really get the most out of an Mbira.

 

[J-Mags]

Ok....maybe I should change the title to this...

Was Any Yacht Rock Ever Recorded on Squier Guitars?

I know this: no yacht rock video was ever recorded using Squier guitars.

 

[Barticus]

Black Keys guitars

 

[Killing Floor]

Squier, and anything below that NEW price wise.

Maneskin, Phoebe Bridgers. Danos are pretty much the opposite of high dollar.
John Rutherford and J Mascis record with Squier.

 

[MisterUbu]

Joy Division? I think Bernard Summer was the one that used pricier equipment (not sure about how much Shergolds were but he used an SG), but Hooky didn't start using Yamaha BB2000s until New Order. It's safe to assume on all of Joy Division's tracks he recorded with a cheap Hondo Rickenbacker. Hooky's playing style came from playing with crummy speakers that barely registered low notes, which I always found an inspiration to my own playing style.

(a better track on how they sounded live IMO)

 

[BarfanyShart]

These French African guys play on instruments they made:

 

[sylvanbass]

Self. The whole album was supposedly done with toy instruments only. Remember when it came out. Matt Mahaffey is a badass.

 

[ClusterFlux]

These French African guys play on instruments they made:

I can't believe I forgot about those guys, I was just watching that video a day or two ago. Not much info on these guys, but I think part of the point is making their own instruments out of available materials.

Apparently decent guitars are pretty hard to get in Africa; Mdou Moctar had to make his own guitar when he was learning. A lot of those folks literally record and distribute music on their cell phones. A couple of Yanks have recorded cell phone music for years now:

Sahel Sounds

That said, most of the African musicians who travel internationally have decent instruments. Mostly Fenders.

 

[getBAK]

Fender was founded as a company providing inexpensive instruments to the masses, a tradition that survives to this day.

That's simply untrue and a common myth. The 1959 P-Bass sold new for $219. Adjusted for inflation that's $2240 in today's money.
Avg Household income in 1959 was only $5400. Buying a P-Bass would represent about 4% of annual income.
This was not an inexpensive instrument.

For point of reference you could buy a new 1959 Corvette for $3875 ($39K in today's dollars)

<edit> sorry don't mean to go off here. The 'it was so much cheaper in the old days' narrative sets me off

 

[LanEvo]

Jimmy Page often recorded with cheap guitars, like the Danelectro on Kashmir. He also favored low-powered combos, like Silvertones and Fender Champs, which were essentially practice amps back then.

I believe Henry Gaza from Los Lonely Boys used an MiM Strat before they broke big.

The bass player used Hohner B-Basses for a while. Those are as crappy as you can get … I had one and it was a piece of junk!

 

[ardgedee]

I remember a friend (and Zappa fanatic) telling me that for a while Frank Zappa was using a Pignose for his stage amp (mic'd, obviously). It's very cheap five-watt battery-powered guitar amp (around $150 these days, I got one in the early 00s for $80, they were probably $25-ish back in the day). It only has one tone (and only a volume knob for control) but it can sound really good if that's the tone you're looking for.

 

[Freekmagnet]

Fulu Miziki definitely play instruments that could be considered literal garbage, and I think they're f+++in' amazing.

 

[ElectroVibe]

I remember a friend (and Zappa fanatic) telling me that for a while Frank Zappa was using a Pignose for his stage amp (mic'd, obviously). It's very cheap five-watt battery-powered guitar amp (around $150 these days, I got one in the early 00s for $80, they were probably $25-ish back in the day). It only has one tone (and only a volume knob for control) but it can sound really good if that's the tone you're looking for.

That's cool. Definitely easy to carry your equipment around that way.