Music on board

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Graham_Wright

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When ashore, I have a choice of organ (electronic), piano accordion, guitar, clarinet and a few others.

Aboard, I would like to generate what I think is music (but others disagree!).

The accordion would be a candidate but it is bulky and I am not sure the reed attachments would fare well in a sea environment.

What do others do?

A keyboard would fit well but the learning curve is probably a challenge for an old git like me.
 
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Graham_Wright said:
When ashore, I have a choice of organ (electronic), piano accordion, clarinet and a few others.

Aboard, I would like to generate what I think is music (but others disagree!).

The accordion would be a candidate but it is bulky and I am not sure the reed attachments would fare well in a sea environment.

What do others do?

A keyboard would fit well but the learning curve is probably a challenge for an old git like me.
Click to expand...

I usually just hum along to "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" as it best describes any situation I'm likely to be in.
 
Graham_Wright said:
The accordion would be a candidate but it is bulky and I am not sure the reed attachments would fare well in a sea environment.

What do others do?
Click to expand...

I've known accordions on boats, but don't know whether these are just for short trips or a whole season. I'd guess that they'd be pretty robust and safe in a dry boat.

Herself brings both metal and keyless polymer flutes (the wooden one is left at home). I keep an Irish bouzouki, moothies and whistles on board for the season (and a saxophone, but that's just for occasional practice to keep chops in shape).
 
I've kept a really cheap (I think it was about £10, about 20 years ago), Chinese, plastic, one row melodeon onboard for up to several months at a time, and the reeds never complain (unlike the occasional, totally uncultured, tone deaf, unappreciative, neghbour).

I've also got an old charity shop guitar onboard (which gets played more often than the melodeon, these days). Again, that seems quite happy with the salt water environment, protected by a cheap bag.
 
I have my 32 bass Sorento piano accordion on board (the 144 bass is currently in storage!)

I used to repair squeezeboxes, often for canal boaters, and they do absolutely hate being kept in a damp environment so I wouldn't leave any accordion, melodeon, concertina etc. on board a boat over the winter unless it was a live-aboard with good insulation and heating

It's not the reed attachments that will suffer (the reeds are usually "glued" to the frames using beeswax*), it's the reeds themselves which, being steel, can rust and especially the bellows which, being cardboard, can literally disintegrate

And I have a cheap Washburn travel guitar which is OK-ish (it was surprisingly OK when new but I think the neck has warped slightly now). I'm investigating the feasibility of creating storage for a full size guitar as part of our recently commenced refit of the forward cabin otherwise I'm going to be applying to the Controller of the Purse for the funds for a new and better travel guitar!

* this is why it's vital never to leave a free reed instrument in the sun or the boot of a car on a hot day. It is a time consuming and very expensive process to attach all the reeds back onto the frames and retune them after they've all fallen off! I acquired an extremely nice Hohner for peanuts (that I now wish I'd kept) that had been left in the boot of a car by a Sally Army band member. After about 10 solid days work it was back in tip-top condition and resold for a substantial profit albeit the hourly rate didn't bear thinking about :)
 
I play the accordion but would never take one on board - as you say, the reeds are just too vulnerable and quite apart from longer term problems, I'd expect it to go out of tune very quickly as they rusted and got heavier.

Both I and my crew are avid recorder players so we sail with a selection of plastic ones - luckily you can get very good ones (Yamaha) very cheaply (£20 - 30).

Waterproof guitars are available, and I am pretty sure Sam Llewellyn said he carried on in "The Minimum Boat". A quick Google has only found me one maker - an American company called Rainsong with a dealer in Morecamble. Unfortunately their guitars seem to cost about $2k ...
 
I once owned a Rainsong 12-string guitar which made an ideal boat guitar - all carbon-fibre, damn nearly indestructible and quite nice-sounding. The only drawbacks were that unless I used the very expensive poly-coated strings, they would rust quickly and need replacing. plus I was never entirely happy about the onboard electronics (a Fishman pickup and equaliser) in the boat environment.

An acoustic six-string Rainsong without pickup would be the ideal, IMHO. But they are certainly not cheap new although they do come up from time to time on the second-hand market. Worth looking out for, and the older ones (with the shark inlays) are said to be better sounding, but I have no direct experience of this.
 
Sgeir said:
I've known accordions on boats, but don't know whether these are just for short trips or a whole season. I'd guess that they'd be pretty robust and safe in a dry boat.

Herself brings both metal and keyless polymer flutes (the wooden one is left at home). I keep an Irish bouzouki, moothies and whistles on board for the season (and a saxophone, but that's just for occasional practice to keep chops in shape).
Click to expand...
That's a coincidence. My missus says she always has a clueless flute with her as well.
 
My guitar suffered quite badly from the damp after a few cruises, so this year I have splashed out on a carbon fibre one which should be totally impervious to moisture.
Rainsong are apparently the Bee's Knees for carbon guitars, but other makes are available. Mine is from Emerald in Ireland. It is a travel guitar and very compact, despite having full scale length. Definitely sounds quite tinny and lacking in bass but it is a trade-off that I will have to live with.
A US company called Klos also makes small carbon-bodied travel guitars for under £500, I suspect they sound a bit like a uke as they are really tiny.
 
Graham_Wright said:
When ashore, I have a choice of organ (electronic), piano accordion, guitar, clarinet and a few others.

Aboard, I would like to generate what I think is music (but others disagree!).

The accordion would be a candidate but it is bulky and I am not sure the reed attachments would fare well in a sea environment.

What do others do?

A keyboard would fit well but the learning curve is probably a challenge for an old git like me.
Click to expand...

Bagpipes - a surefire deterrent to boarders and unwanted visitors.✔️
 
I was hoping someone would cite their experience with a keyboard. I bought a very basic one when they first appeared. It was £500 and required the sale of all my Dinkey toys to fund.

Then I swapped it for an organ I think by Lowry. It had mechanical wah-wah.

Now I have a Technics which is about as complicated as they became before computer assistance arrived.

There are many, many keys. It was previously owned by my uncle who was a brilliant pianist and organist and couldn't read a note of music. He had a cleaner who proudly announced "I have tidied up all those little switches for you Mr. Dutton".

It used to take him and me around an hour to find a combination he liked.
 
nortada said:
Bagpipes - a surefire deterrent to boarders and unwanted visitors.✔️
Click to expand...

There is an antisocial swine who regularly plays the bagpipes in Port Bannatyne marina late in the evening. I have been sorely tempted to retaliate with an accordion, but it seems a little unfair to the innocent bystanders.

Q. What's the definition of a gentleman?
A. Someone who knows how to play the accordion but doesn't.
 
JumbleDuck said:
There is an antisocial swine who regularly plays the bagpipes in Port Bannatyne marina late in the evening. I have been sorely tempted to retaliate with an accordion, but it seems a little unfair to the innocent bystanders.

Q. What's the definition of a gentleman?
A. Someone who knows how to play the accordion but doesn't.
Click to expand...

The tossers who play their instruments in harbour are probably the first to complain if the kids next door crank up a bit of rap at home. There is a certain sort of drunk who thinks anyone with a boat really must want to listen to a tuneless berk murdering sea shanties.
If you ever consider doing an ocean passage with strangers, check the boat for instruments and wannabe musicians...
 
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