What Are Your Favorite Prog Instruments?

[Phlakaton]

Dave Stewart's keyboards - ALL OF EM! Grotty ring modulated or whatever he did to them.

[Mikhael]

Don't care. It's music that matters.

[Garden Dreamer]

I love ALL Prog keyboards naturally (Mellotrons, Arps, Moog, Hammond etc.). But, I also love the old Rickenbacker 4001 bass which Mike Rutherford, Chris Squire and Geddy Lee used. I'm not much of a bass player personally although I like to have certain instruments around in the studio for others to play. I had a Ricky 4001 in 1994 which I sold to Stan Cotey so he could play the ideal bass sound when we did "The Lamb" with Giraffe. I never should have sold it though! Glad to say I just picked up a 1973 Ricky 4001 for a really good deal. Ahhhhhhhh. That clunky chunky mofo is back in my life!

Mine, too. Several times I came close to pulling the trigger on buying one, and regret it seeing what they go for now.
Add to the list Jon Camp of Renaissance, Dave Meros of Spocks Beard, the guy from Anglagard, Gustaf Fjelstrom of Maximum Indifference, I'm sure I'll think of a few more...

[Adinfinitum]

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I had a Chapman Stick once. Never should have sold it. That's a cool instrument. Although in the hands of Trey Gunn or Tony Levin it's a whole other thing. I like when Nick Beggs breaks out the Stick during Steve Hackett's show. That's interesting hearing it on... what does he play it on again? I think either Lilywhite Lilith or Broadway Melody of '74 I thought. I forget now.

You mean, like this?

Nick plays the stick on LLDOB songs, Fly on a Windshield, Broadway Melody and Liliwhite. A great choice and it makes sense since Rutherford used a Baritone Microfrets Guitar on those songs.

Note - this was from the Collingswood, NJ show last Saturday. SH was playing at the Space, a venue 10 minutes from my house the Saturday before, but since I saw him on the 2013 leg, I told myself I wouldn't go unless I had front row seats. Then this Saturday morning, a friend said he just interviewed SH and got Comp tickets. So . . I drove 140 miles to see him - 6th row seats. WORTH THE DRIVE!

[SteveSly]

Although I love loud screaming guitar, for prog I would have to say that generally it is the keys that make the music what it is.

[the winter tree]

Yamaha CP-70 electric piano, adds a very distinct atmosphere, sort of melancholy.

About 15 ot 20 years ago I went to a music store near where I live and there was a CP-70 with a roadcase with JOBSON and UK stenciled on it.It was selling for $1200. I wanted desperately to buy it but had no money. It sat there for many months.

[Smörgåsbord]

Flute. Can't go wrong.

[Progbear]

Saxophone and flute when played by Jimmy Hastings on any/every Canterbury/related record he guested on.

Clarinet, too. The clarinet is a very underrated/underused instrument in prog. I think only Banco and Supertramp used it to any great degree.

c3......by far

like the b also....but it is much more better for blues

Aren’t the B3 and C3 the exact same instrument, just in different cabinets?

[SteveSly]

Vibes. Not enough prog bands utilize them, either. But they should.

Can't think of very many off the top of my head. Tunnels of course, and Kansas used to use them on occasion (Steve Walsh is a pretty good vibe player, and used to play them live in concert.)

[Finch Platte]

North drums (see Gino Vanelli, Brother To Brother).

[trurl]

Aren’t the B3 and C3 the exact same instrument, just in different cabinets?

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyep.

[yesman1955]

Anyone know which Mellotron sound is used on the first section of KCs Cirkus?

[Soc Prof]

I love analog synths, especially the Minimoog, Modular Moog, Moog Taurus Pedals, ARP 2600, and Roland Guitar synth. Also love the "holy" mellotron (and related tape samplers), and electric guitars played through Marshall Plexi stacks.

With that said, digital technology can recreate those sounds with such high accuracy these days that I am perfectly happy listening to virtual synths, mellotron, and amps. I use digital modeling in my own recordings for both budgetary and practical reasons.

[AncientChord]

No brainer here. The Mellotron. Not the midi or digital ones, but the real deal. Dragging tape loops and all. Deep love!

[AncientChord]

Anyone know which Mellotron sound is used on the first section of KCs Cirkus?

I believe it's the Brass ( a voice sadly seldom used today ) from the old M-400.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Clarinet, too. The clarinet is a very underrated/underused instrument in prog. I think only Banco and Supertramp used it to any great degree.

No. Clarinet (as well as bass clarinet) plays a far more integral role in the through-composed charts of bands like Henry Cow, Albert Marcoeur, Debile Menthol, L'Ensemble Rayè, Aqsak Maboul, Stormy Six, Blast, Doctor Nerve, Kruzenshtern I Parohod etc.

Earlier on it was emplyed by more "conventional" progressive bands like Family and Traffic, in Italy with Maxophone etc.

[Dusty Chalk]

Hammered dulcimer!

No, seriously, if you count Tortoise as prog, then they play a lot of vibes and marimba and whatever the hell else you play with hammers like that.

[Scrotum Scissor]

if you count Tortoise as prog, then they play a lot of vibes and marimba and whatever the hell else you play with hammers like that.

Tortoise are "progressive rock music", yes - and collectively possess a wider array of actually trained (academic) musicianship than any other modern such band that I'm aware of.

For a grand example of offspring from Tortoise's main ideas, check the now long gone Algernon from Philadelphia. They essentially replaced all keys With tuned percussion, working absolute wonders for the material.

[Dusty Chalk]

Preaching to the choir: I definitely consider them prog, I just don't hear them talked about much in prog circles.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Preaching to the choir: I definitely consider them prog, I just don't hear them talked about much in prog circles.

Lotsa 'toise fans in here at least, I can tell you that.

[NogbadTheBad]

I'm certainly one

[Smörgåsbord]

Adding an instrument changes the character of a band's music fundamentally. Many accusations of doing the same album over and over again would disappear if they only added something different in terms of a musical instrument, and I'm primarily thinking of sympho bands, of course.

[Yaman Aksu]

My favorite prog instrument might possibly be Fish's vocals/voice during Fish-era Marillion.

Adding an instrument changes the character of a band's music fundamentally.

Yes. See my first sentence above. :-)

[walt]

Trombone lends heft,swagger and deep earthy tones if used well.I'm thinking of trombone in Zappa/MoI, Beefheart and especially in Terje Rypdal's Odyssey band.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Trombone lends heft,swagger and deep earthy tones if used well.I'm thinking of trombone in Zappa/MoI, Beefheart and especially in Terje Rypdal's Odyssey band.

And many bands influenced thereby, like Tipographica, Hardscore and Isildurs Bane on their MIND-series. One of my fave uses of trombone in a rock context, though, remains Shub-Niggurath's Les Morts Vont Vite; to have a basic instrument such as this transcend its whole function given a disparate environment - such a move speaks of creativity. During the last 15 years or so, I thought Deus Ex Machina employed the trombone marvellously on Equilibrismo da Insofferrenza - and that's a monster album itself right there.