Let's face it; there so many different types of instruments out there, it's neigh impossible to talk about them all. Despite so many of them, there are a true few instruments that continue to intrigue us in our lives.
So, what instruments interest you? What can you tell me about those particular instruments? Know any musicians that utilized said-instrument? I'll begin with at least one instrument:
Birotron B90: Considered by many to be the rarest pop/rock keyboard in the world, the Birotron is a 1970's Mellotron-esque machine that is designed to play 8-track tape loops, with various tapes typically containing flute, string, brass or choir loops on each tape. What made the Birotron unique over other Mellotrons was its ability to individually sustain any note hit on the keyboard. Another amazing feature was that, since the notes were essentially the 8-tracks, they could be swapped and replaced by other instrument tracks made by the owner, allowing a large variety of different notes to be played. Otherwise, Rick Wakeman, the funder of the Birotron, produced an entire sound library of 8-tracks to officially go with the Birotron units, so the customization was quite attractive. Musicians from the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Beach Boys, and approximately 1,000 following orders deemed the unit as a success.
However, despite all these positives, it was an extremely expensive machine, costing around $3,000 dollars. Combined with the slow production of the machines, many musicians quickly became disinterested in their investment. With that said, it is believed that only 10-30 Birotrons were ever made, with only 5 of them confirmed to exist to this very day. The aforementioned sound library recordings on the 8-tracks are now impossible to replace, meaning that once all the surviving 100-hour tapes are used up, it will be permanently lost to time. And while the master tapes have resurfaced, they're presumed to be beyond saving, unless some form of digital salvage can repair the audio.
The only known recording of a Birotron played in isolation.