Most annoying instrument (to your ears)?

[gustobassman]

We are all here because we love music and bass obviously, but is there an instrument that just makes you cringe every time you hear one? I'm not talking about just having a disdain for an instrument because you couldn't play it well; I'm talking about fingers-on-the-chalkboard or break-your-finger-changing-the radio-station annoying. For me it is the recorder. There can't be a more annoying sound than a room full of recorders just piercing my eardrums with shards of painful squeals and high C's.

What instrument when you hear it (if any), just rubs you the wrong way?

 

[rtslinger]

The sitar incredibly annoying to me

 

[Luke19Boarder]

Who wants to place bets on whether this thread is derailed by those who don't think rap is music (drum machines) or by those who don't think EDM is music (synth/button-based instruments)?

Edit: I'm taking the low hanging fruit of bagpipes.

 

[Odinbass]

Banjo.

And as rtslinger said, the sitar is a usually a turnoff.

 

[Marial]

Yep, banjo. I dig sitar, however.

 

[DirtDog]

vuvuzela

 

[Johnny Crab]

Mandolins are ruined to me.
Once we did a 2 band thing with an "old school" group that had a mandolin run through a Fishman amp that he'd managed to get elevated to ear level by setting it on top of a case & a guitarist's amp. No problem until the two bandleaders decided it would be great for both bands to play together on a few tunes. My ears were being pierced every time that guy hit a note and my earplugs were offstage(didn't need them with my band's stage volume).

Ever since then, mandolin reminds me of that event and annoys me.

 

[JohnDeereJack]

Cher - she's the most annoying thing I've ever heard. (Hmmm... but can she be classed as an instrument?)
If not Cher, then violin. Played badly.

@Luke19Boarder: bagpipes are a f*cking man's instrument! Get it up ye!

 

[Luke19Boarder]

@Luke19Boarder: bagpipes are a f*cking man's instrument! Get it up ye!

Fair enough ... they can work in some cases:



However, if I was at a local venue and an unknown band came on with a bagpipe player, I would be nervous for my ears.

 

[Funky_Be]

Bagpipes, recorder, accordion or anything with a really high pitch.

Guitars with way too many effects or that are overbearingly louder than everyone else.

Badly played sax (or any wind instrument).

 

[catcauphonic]

The Dropkick Murphys use it best, because it's mixed in with a lot of loud instruments, but to hear a solo player or group of them, it's like a cheese grater on my ears.

My housemate plays the amplified saw, and her band also has an accordian, along with bass and drums. They sound really amazing, but if that saw is too loud it sounds like an alley cat in heat outside your bedroom window at 3am.

 

[petrus61]

Bagpipes are easily the most grating instrument to the ears that was ever devised, aside from the vuvuzela:


I also agree that poorly played sax ranks up there as one of the worst. Sometimes even well played sax is annoyingly cheesy, particularly the latest trend to use sax loops in modern R&B and the reverb drenched sax of 80's Rock.

 

[ptg]

Calling bagpipes annoying is an understatement to me. It's the only instrument played at funerals that make the living wish they weren't.

 

[AaronVonRock]

Bob Dylan/Neil Young-style harmonica.

I like when someone rocks hard on a harmonica and really jams, but I can't stand the guy singing, playing guitar, and having a harmonica strapped to his chest and he just breathes in and out of it.

 

[Mvilmany]

Bagpipes.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

vuvuzela

One note doth not make an instrument, sorry!

 

[itsalljustaride]

This post lacks a quiz.

My vote: The human voice. Any instrument could be annoying, and most can also sound good when used well, but (almost) everyone has a mouth to try to sing with, and few do it passably

 

[Fat Freddy]

Pedal steel

 

[buldog5151bass]

Bagpipes, vuvuzela (although I always considered that more of a noisemaker, like a slide whistle, than an instrument).

Oboe or violin played poorly (think grade school band).

 

[itsalljustaride]

Bagpipes.

There was a guy who used to come to open-mics where I lived who would play the 'pipes. He was ok, but an "ok" bagpipe player really isn't that discernible from a bad one, and I'm pretty sure he was a sadist that just liked torturing people.