These are the instruments we play, with a bit of an explanation of each:
"Big gob" doesn't qualify as an instrument, so Kaz hasn't got a section here.
Melodeon
This is a bellows instrument, akin to the accordian and concertina. The two-row diatonic melodeon that Pennie uses can play in two major keys, D and G. They will also play in other keys, notably Em and Am, but A is also possible.Pennie plays a Hohner 2 row or a Salterelle for bookings and occasionally a Castagnari.
Appalachian dulcimer
This isn't the dulcimer made famous by Coleridge in his poem about Kubla Khan, but a relative from the American Appalachian mountains. It's a diatonic fretted instrument - that is, it doesn't have a fret at every semitone interval like a guitar, but at the intervals of a normal Western diatonic scale. Clif plays six-string instruments with the strings tuned in three pairs, which, due to the layout of the frets, will only play in one key. Clif uses two, one tuned to D and the other to G (which, eagle-eyed readers will note, are the same keys as Penni's melodeons).Guitar
Peter uses a normal hollow-bodied six-string acoustic guitar in standard tuning, fitted with a piezo-electric pickup for use with amplification.For Mike's occasional guitar work, he uses a Variax modelling guitar which can simulate the sound of various acoustic and electric guitars.
Bass
Both the bass guitar and the double bass are tuned to the same notes as the bottom four strings of a guitar but an octave down. The scale length of a bass guitar is 34", while a 3/4 double bass has a scale length of 41". Five-string instruments have the top four strings tuned as the bottom four of a guitar but an octave down, and an additional B string tuned lower than the bottom E. Mike uses either an NS WAV-4 4-string electric upright bass or an Ergo Instruments 5-string upright bass, a Mazeti 5-string fretless or a fretless customised Warwick Thumb 4-string, and an Ashbory, a tiny instrument with silicone strings tuned the same as a bass.