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Oldest musical possession


Mickeyboro

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I mentioned in another forum my Radio Shack battery practice amp, bought in 1999 and still going strong. Uses a battery the size of a half brick. Tried to replace it but was struck by remorse... is used every other Thursday for uke bass on Irish session. 

What have you owned the longest (not a bass or guitar) that still helps you make music?

 

156B842B-3703-486D-B1C9-8E4287DF1DEE.jpeg

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I still have a pair of drumsticks from my teens in the 60s, which I found and started to use again a couple of years ago when I bought an electronic kit.

You wouldn't say that they 'help me make music' though if you heard my drumming......

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A very expensive black leather Gibson strap I bought in the mid 70’s to go with my second guitar, a black Avon Les Paul copy. Still using it, although these days with my 1959 Les Paul Junior.

Still got my Marshall 18 watt valve combo I bought around 1976, for £45!! Just had it overhauled, and it sounds as good as ever. Sadly don’t get chance to use it in public these days due to my guitar skills still being rather err..rudimentary. Occasional jams with friends is when it gets an airing, and it will never be sold. 

Also my big Korg GT6 tuner which was a birthday present from my girlfriend in the late 70’s. Nowadays gets used at home when restringing basses and guitars, still works great!

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I've got two Klotz cables that I bought in 1986; one or other of them still gets used at pretty much every rehearsal and most gigs.
I haven't got anything older than that, because I had all my gear nicked apart from my bass and amp in early 1986. >:(

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I've got a 50 watt marshall head, master volume. I've had it about 17 years now. Signed by Jim himself. It's in my music room, last used by the late great Chris Tsangarides in his studio (because someone wanted an old(ish) Marshall).

A columbus flange pedal, bought in 1988. Boss od-1 about 1990.

and a Klotz wide strap (I think it's klotz). Still attached to my precision after 29 years of use.

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Obviously no longer in use, but I think my parents still keep this:

Vintage-Fisher-Price-Musical-Instrument-

Vintage-Fisher-Price-Musical-Instrument-

Vintage-Fisher-Price-Musical-Instrument-

Me and my sister played a LOT with this back when we were (very) young, and I still think it's brilliant. The red mouthpiece top left is a kazoo, and the orange one is a whistle, and you could make the craziest musical instruments with them. And it stuck, because way before I started playing guitar and bass I played the recorder in school, and my sister played the recorder too and later switched to the flute, which she occasionally still plays today. 

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I still have my first primary school recorder from around 1967/8. A very well worn plastic Dolmetsch descant that I still pick up from time to time although I'll usually play one of the wooden ones in my collection.

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4 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

That looks great fun, especially to give as a present to someone eles's kids. I wonder whether they are still available.

Just what I was thinking - my grandchildren would love one of these!

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I still  have the 1967 Gibson J50 A that I bought new in Toronto when I graduated from university in '67. It went with me on a trip by ship to Australia and back in '67-'68 and it rode around Australia on the back of my motorcycle for about four months. It is still a wonderful guitar and I have played hundreds of gigs with it including the most recent one about a month ago.The bridge was reset shortly after I bought it but that is the only work ever done on it and it has been played outdoors in the rain and just about every situation possible except very large events. It sounds great and although some Gibson fans don't like the adjustable bridge on the J50 A I like it and use it to tweak the set up occasionally.The narrow fingerboard on these guitars is not popular with everyone but I have small hands and it is perfect for me.

I also have a Baldwin Ode tenor banjo that I bought new in 1975 and have played and gigged it on and off since then. At one point shortly after I bought it I played four shows a night, six days a week for about six months at a big hotel in Toronto so I needed a good instrument.  It was something like $1100 Canadian at the time which was a lot of money in those days but it has held up with no repairs through hundreds of gigs including one last year in the pit band for a production of "Chicago" and a brewery gig in May 2019 and I will be playing it at a rehearsal next week and a gig in August. It still has the original head and sounds fantastic...well,if you like banjos.

Neither of these are mint condition "show" instruments, they were made to be played and they show some scars from the years but both are still fine instruments that sound wonderful and are a joy to play. 

My basses are mere babies: a '97(?)Yamaha  EB bought new, a 10+ year old Yamaha SLB 200 EUB and a 2008 Engelhardt Swingmaster ES9 DB.

At 73 I still play all of them and gig regularly, they have been the best things in my life and have taken me many places and will live on long after I'm gone to give someone else the joy of making music. 

Edited by Staggering on
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3 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

Well technically speaking, my oldest musical possession is my 1957 Fender Precision, but I suspect the OP means things you've actually owned the longest ...

 

I'd beat that with a violin made in the 1790's.......(NB: cooincidentally also happen to have a '57 P bass!)

in terms of the OP criteria; the oldest I have is a beat-up Victorian concertina I bought on Cambridge market for 50p when I was about 10 - never learned to play it, but it inspired me musically and started a life-long interest in musical instruments as beautiful and fascinating things.   Oldest thing I actually still use is a hand-tooled leather guitar strap I bought in 1979.

Edited by Shaggy
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For some reason I still have the original pickup and pickguard from my first bass, a 1989 Fender Precision '57 reissue. All my basses are fairly modern now but I did own a few from the 70s and I believe late 60s that all went when times got a little tighter a few years back.

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Sheryl Crow ?   57 and still fabulous. Oh hang on, we are talking about reality.  Boooring....

A Vintage stingray copy EST96A from 2005 that my partner bought for me. Its yellow translucent has faded to a light brown. 

 

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12 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

I mentioned in another forum my Radio Shack battery practice amp, bought in 1999 and still going strong. Uses a battery the size of a half brick. Tried to replace it but was struck by remorse... is used every other Thursday for uke bass on Irish session. 

What have you owned the longest (not a bass or guitar) that still helps you make music?

 

156B842B-3703-486D-B1C9-8E4287DF1DEE.jpeg

I had one of those amps from Tandy! Paired with an encore elec guitar, strangely you can still buy those weird batteries in Home Bargains. 

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