Name Your Instruments?

[Jim MacDaniel]

I haven't named mine, mainly because, if I did, I'd probably pick a really geeky name—Worf or Plato or Niels Bohr. And then I'd be too embarrassed to tell anyone...

How about Gadfly -- that way you can say it's your favorite insect if you were too embarassed to admit to the Plato/Socrates reference. (But I guess that depends upon which you would find more embarassing: being confused for an Entomologist or a Liberal Arts major.

[Man of Wax]

How about Gadfly -- that way you can say it's your favorite insect if you were too embarassed to admit to the Plato/Socrates reference. (But I guess that depends upon which you would find more embarassing: being confused for an Entomologist or a Liberal Arts major.

Well, "gadfly" would fit my nonconformist outlook, but after seeing your avatar, I might just go with "Phil."

[Wesley]

I've called my Brentrup "Minnie" since it was built in my old home town of Minneapolis near Lake Minnitonka. I have a Kimble on order. When it gets here I figure I'll call that one "Doc". After Dr Richard Kimble.

[GDAE]

Well, it doesn't have a name, but I do consider it female for some reason. I usually say, "come here gorgeous, let's play" when I pick it up, because it's just so dang beautiful.

[mandozilla]

Mine mandolin is named Froggy. It doesn't refer to the sounds it makes but to the builders logo on the headstock which is a cute little tree frog. When I first got her I called her Baby and then Sweet Thang before naming her Froggy.

[JEStanek]

Mine have neither a name or a gender. I just refer to them by who made them, Labraid, Spira, Eastman. I call the octave, The Octave and the bowlback, The Bowlback. I also often refer to my son as The Boy.

Jamie

[Lee]

I refer to them by their serial numbers. How geeky is that! I tend to stick with small builders so they're all 2 or 3 digits. If I ever buy a Weber or a Gibson I'll have to re-think that strategy later. Never felt the urge to give them a name.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Hmmm... I nicknamed my "kids" in the order in which they came into our lives: my dog Jack is #1, and my boy Aidan is #2, so maybe I should call my most recent mandolin #3.

[Rob Powell]

I hate to admit it but I call my Weber "Baby" and my The Loar "Big Boy"

Ok, now I have to leave the cafe.

[Patrick Gunning]

The first instrument I named was my Collings D1A guitar. I call her "River" 'cause she takes me far from troubled times (reference to Darrell Scott song "River Take Me"). Then I saw awesome tv show Firefly (http://www.hulu.com/firefly) which had a cool female character named River. My Arrow Octave Mandolin then became named Zoe after another character on the show (both black, curvaceous, and packing a real punch). My Collings MT remains unnamed as it is a temporary instrument. It remains to be seen whether Voight #7 will become Kaylee, Inara or Saffron.

I am such a nerd...

[man dough nollij]

Yep. Squealer, Piglet, Anthrax, Sid, and Darth.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've found a few choice names when stringing the darned fiddly things up - none of which i dare post on here without getting blacklisted - otherwise they're just known as Fern & Jiri (pronounced Yirji - i believe),maybe i should Czech that !,
Saska

[Phillip Tigue]

Mine is "Red Headed Step Child"

Cause I beat the snot out of it...

[Womandolin]

Mine is "Red Headed Step Child"

Cause I beat the snot out of it...

Best expression ever. I try to use that at least once a week in general conversation.

[rekx]

I have named my Weber "Bully"....she has a Bully chop to her and always bullies her way into the jam.

[mandroid]

Hank Williams song About the wooden-headed cigar store Indian statue , named "Kawlija"
now my banjo-uke, which wears G D A E tuned nylon strings and a spruce wooden 'head',
is also called Kawlija.



mandolin ######

[Overcast]

I was thinking about "Mandy Lynn" - or is that too corny?

[Bob Wiegers]

I was thinking about "Mandy Lynn" - or is that too corny?

since you asked: yes.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

[aphillips]

I haven't named my Breedlove but my wife derides it as Bertha or simply the other woman.

[mrmando]

Blondie was the Kent 744 electric mando that I eventually sold to a guy in Vermont.

Rosie is the 1924 A2Z, so called because someone painted a floral design on the pickguard and truss rod cover.

Snagglepuss is the Aceto NV 5-string electric violin, but only because that's what Eric Aceto called it.

I don't have names for any of the others.

[Joe Dodson]

I've never named any of my instruments, cars, or body parts.

Also, I never lose sleep or apologize when someone chides me for failing to search earlier threads. I give such folks the benefit of the doubt by assuming that they're trying to be helpful. In any case, I've only been hanging around here for a few years, so answers to questions regarding pick choice, string choice, A-style vs. F-Style, instrument and similar popular topics are still extremely interesting to me.

[Matt Vuksinich]

I've been fortunate enough to own a number of great instruments over the past several years--but haven't given, or recognized, names to any but two: a Vinaccia bowlback mandola named "Lucia," and a L&H mandola named "Arturo." I know this sounds crazy, but both of these instruments essentially "told me" their names within the first few hours of playing them. I've tried to learn the names of the others, but haven't been successful. I recognize that each of them is definitely male or female, but can't tell you how or why I know this, it's just more of a "feeling"--and I've tried to offer names to them, but they just have not really "fit," and were more of a pretension, so I didn't. My prejudiced anthropomorphic opinion is that an instrument will let you know its name if it truly has one--it's not like a young dog you get through Furry Friends Rescue that can be re-assigned one and comfortably acclimate.

BTW, I'm really more of a mandolin player, just playing mandola in the local orchestras because that's what was needed; but despite spending more time on mandolin, they've NOT told me their names--so I don't think it's a matter of intimate time spent together.

[JD Cowles]

my one and only F5 is 'Porkslayer'...long story involving too much PBR and bacon and days at Rockygrass...

[Kip]

I haven't named my Breedlove but my wife derides it as Bertha or simply the other woman.

My Eastman 804 got tagged with Bertha: We were driving from New Hampshire to Montana in the winter. I was driving the moving truck with the dogs and my wife and kids were in the Honda. They were tasked with making sure my mando stayed warm- carrying it into restaurants and hotels while I walked the dogs. Somewhere in Indiana my daughter called it Bertha- from the old Grateful Dead song- "Bertha don't you come around here...anymore.

My new Eastman 505 is named Mars because there is a small irregularity that looks like the red "spot" on Mars...

Too much information?

I just got an old Silvertone b**jo that I haven't named yet...

[Gerard Dick]

The Fender OM is called Stealth since it flies below the radar. My KM 380 is called Sassy because it is almost shrill. My Weber Yellowstone is called Honey because that'sthe color and it's my fave.