I've been playing the piano since I was 6, but stopped doing grades when I was 10 or so because I wanted to play pop music rather than classical. This means I can do a mean Lady Madonna but can't play a note of Rachmaninov.

I've also got an acoustic guitar, a shiny red bass and a uke, but they're all pretty cheap and cheerful options.

I had a blonde Telecaster. I was strictly bedroom, if you get my drift. My proudest moment was when I was playing along to Cortez The Killer by Neil Young and my friend Phil (a NY nut) told me I had played really well. But I haven't really played for about 5 years now... I'd rather listen to people who are good do it.

As a public transport bod I get asked what is in the case when you say its a glockenspiel peps just seem to find that funny . Mind you my drum kit stays at home .

There. I've said it.

I've played in pub bands for the last 20-odd years. In private I'll flail along to Simon Phillips, Bill Bruford and Billy Cobham but, for gigs, I leave 75% of the kit in the music room and keep it simple. It avoids derision from the other band members/audience members.

I also have a collection of analogue synthesizers - mainly 1970s/early 1980s - but a couple of more recent ones and a few modules which, one day, will form a proper modular synth. I never play them live but love 'twiddling' and doing Tangs style sequencer driven stuff and, to be honest, I'm equally happy taking them apart and soldering.

I also have a Gibson acoustic but am nowhere near as good as I'd like - three chords and the truth is about as far as I go, plus a bit of fingerstyle when I want to make out I'm better than I really am. There's an old Tele copy hanging on the music room wall. It was completely knackered in a flood a few years back but it *looks* like it's been gigged to death :-)

A friend is selling a Fender P-bass - solid black, no scratchplate - it looks LOVELY and I have no need for it but the gear-fairy is hovering on my shoulder BUT at the same time, I'm lusting after a set of Octobans to give me that 1980s Bill Bruford/Stewart Copeland sound; oh and I keep scouring ebay and the specialist auction sites for a genuine Simmonds SDS electronic drum kit - you KNOW the one I mean; 1980s, hexagonal pads like pizza boxes. There MUST be a cheap one out there in need of some soldering and TLC.

and

and

I also have an Aria 6 string acoustic that I've had for over 25 years and is my favourite.

I'm a bedroom guitarist and always will be. I can get a few licks from harmonicas, and last year my boys bought me a cheap ukulele for Christmas and I learned how to play Loudon Wainwright III's "Ukulele Song" right away....don't know if I could play it now though..hehe!

My son plays piano and alto sax(jazz), both at over level 3. I help him learn, try to teach and encourage him though I can play neither instrument.

It's supposed to be fun!!!!

... but I can only make it sound horrible.

I used to have a mandolin but I accidently left it behind on a house move. Couldn't play it anyway.

I can also play Streams Of Whiskey by The Pogues on a penny whistle.

No fenders round here, just appalling folkie stuff. No uke though...

… but I've been playing pedal steel for about 10 years. It's a fascinating and incredibly versatile instrument that's too long been associated with just one type of music. I also tinker on guitar and keyboards, but pedal steel is a lifetime's worth of learning…

Very sad, but as I always say, it beats collecting stamps:

1) Fender Precision bass - used with my band.
2) Cort Jazz-type bass - spare. Looks lovely.
3) Tanglewood 'Quomaster' electric. As you may have guessed, it's a green Telecaster type.
4) Unidentifiable spanish guitar. My first instrument, gained aged 8, which I wouldn't ever want to part with.
5) Encore acoustic, bought for £30 in a car boot sale, tuned to 'Nashville' tuning (top set of a 12-string guitar). Sounds like a mandolin.
6) Freshman electro-acoustic. Traded for an Epiphone jumbo, when I was recovering from RSI and couldn't handle large-bodied instruments.
7) Daisy Rock 12-string electric. Supposedly designed for girls, but I bought it for its big wide neck (I have fingers like Walls' sausages). It goes jingle and jangle, which cheers me up no end after a hard day.
8) Les Paul Junior 'project' which is nearly done (ten years and counting.)

I play them all, and none of them cost me more than £250. As my dad once said, 'You could sell them all and get a decent bloody instrument'.

My treasures.......I posted this once before and haven't added any since then, though I did buy myself a 6' grand piano as a 50th pressie! I've got an electric piano and X50 synth too. I also play a bit of harmonicca and sing a bit. I do lots of home recording and the odd gig too...basically yer typical obsessed amateur.

(L-R) Back row - Faith 12 string, Sigma Martin HD-28, Lowden O10, Martin HD28v, L'Arrivee OM01, Paul Hathaway mandolin, Martin Backpacker

Middle row - Goldtone square neck dobro, Nickle body round neck resonator, Nashville Telecaster (with B bender), Gibson Les Paul Special, Noname Strat copy for slide, Squire P Special bass

Front row - Ibanez Artist, Washburn HB-50, Suzuki Mandolin, Fender Jerry Donahue Telecaster, Rickenbacker Lap Steel, Fender Roadhouse Strat (with LR Baggs piezo bridge)

I am first and foremost a harmonica player, diatonic and chromatic. I've got so many of the damn things I lost count. Plus the inevitable vintage microphones of course.

Also own & play: Dobro (1995 duolian), Fylde Lucetta Mandolin, Fylde Touchstone Octave Mandola, Deering Goodtime 5-string banjo. Lesser instruments include a cheap uke, concertina and accordion.

I used to play regular guitars, bass and keyboards, but decided to specialize in less commonplace instruments a few years ago.

I can't sing. Doesn't stop me from trying, though!

started when i was seven and have played since, although like Joe R above, i ditched grades (and lessons) which accounted for a three year period that i didn't touch it. Then I saw some sheet music for (stop laughing) Billy Joel in a shop and reckoned 'No pressure to get this right for anybody apart from myself' and started back playing again.

I don't bother reading music anymore as such, although I still can. I play either by ear, or by getting a few chords of a site like www.e-chords.com and working an arrangement around that. Also like Joe, I can do a mean Lady Madonna (is there *anything* more satisfying than the moment when you finally nail down how the bassline should run in it?) but nowt classical on the menu.

I'm presently trying to get a handle on the whole BoogieWoogie style. I reckon the piano solo on Good Thing by the Fine Young Cannibals is doable; when i get it right, you'll be the first to hear!

World class.

in black maple...lovely, oh and a tambourine.

wearing a neon skeleton t-shirt and listening to the sustain 'on that'. Don't touch it!

Arf!

Guitar, drums, sax, keys. My favourite is bass guitar. Fingered, never plectrum.

No musical talent at all but Mrs Diz bought me a pair of bongoes a few years ago.

It's actually quite therapeutic sitting in the garden on a summer day giving them a good going over (ooh err missus).

Trombone, piano, a little guitar (rubbish on the latter really) and bass.

...on occasion.

Rather than plain old "SG" - not sure why, but I think it was a special model from many moons ago - mine is 1978 and has "Made in Kalamazoo" stamped on it. Also a Washburn Cherokee. Unfortunately, having a small child has curtailed my once-nightly practice to perhaps a wistful "I used to know how to play this" once a month or so. Also I have no, zero, nada, null sense of rhythm, which has been a hinderance.

Hit 40 years old four months ago and decided to have a go at learning saxophone in dedication to my late father who once had a dream he was Fats Domino and I was some nondescript sax player who had no name!

Thoroughly enjoying it and can play some tunes that people actually recognise but it is frustrating and got earache from my tutor last night for not practising scales.....they're boring.

Mind you the missus has threatened to throw me out if I play The Pink Panther again.....every cloud!

Been in a couple of "gigging bands", on guitar or bass and sometimes vocals. Just do the odd acoustic gig at the moment but really enjoy writing and recording music. Digital multi-track home recording is great. I use a drum machine and, whilst I couldn't claim to play the keyboard, I can do enough on one to fill in the gaps when required.

I play guitar and bass. Rather badly, I'm afraid.