I started as a child on an Erard upright - this could be the one even as it is exactly as I remember it apart from it's restored condition. Regretfully I gave it away some years ago as I realised people in the street outside could hear me on it:
I also started to learn violin and even made a record! My school had the ability to make 78rpm records and I had one made of me playing in the annual music competition. In my later youth it used to get played at parties but it sounded as terrible as a badly played violin can sound and I think someone kindly destroyed it in the end because it mysteriously disappeared.
The 'B' side of the record was a small group with me in the violin, a trombonist and I can't remember what else. We played a Scottish song, 'Hoots Man there's a moose loose about this hoose'. We had a token Scotsman in the school and at the appropriate juncture he leapt out and shouted the title line, as you can hear it spoken in this recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_H82J0D4M
I then got in trouble with my parents for trading the violin in for a trumpet which I played the Last Post on at midnight in the middle of the school playing field on my last day at the school.
Work and life then got in the way until more recent times when I have the upgraded CLP115 I've written about, an acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a violin again. None of which I can really play. I hanker after a saxophone but realistically I don't think I'd get anywhere with it.
I did have a Yamaha electric organ for a while but realised that it was the act of playing the music that was enjoyable, not the different sounds you can make with an electronic instrument.
I'm presently considering a decent electric guitar. I had a cheap one for a while but got fed up with all the cables. I do see an electric guitar as an instrument in it's own right and not just an alternative to an acoustic.
