Instruments

Cool tapes are cool

The populace of Free Country, USA are quite musically talented; several of them play various instruments.

Marzipan 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Guitar Carol is Marzipan's guitar, (although in Powered by The Cheat cartoons, she is called "Carl"). She is modeled after a nylon-string classical/Spanish guitar. Carol features a drawing of a "Don't Tread on Me"-style snake from the American Revolutionary War. Marzipan plays Carol in the band Cool Tapes with Strong Mad and The Cheat. However, the sound Carol makes in the song "A Bag of Four Grapes", and in One Two, One Two, is much more like that of an electric guitar with distortion.	See Carol
	Electric Guitar In different town, Strong Bad wishes that Marzipan would rock, picturing her playing an electric guitar. The guitar closely resembles "Mom", a guitar custom built for George Lynch and later produced by ESP Guitars. It is unknown if Marzipan has ever played an electric guitar; however, as mentioned above, it seems as though Carol is capable of making an electric guitar resonance in the song "A Bag of Four Grapes" and in One Two, One Two.
	Amplifier In addition, Marzipan uses amplifiers, similar in style to Marshall amplifiers, but instead have her name on them.
	Ukulele The Ukulele is used by Marzipan to play Hawaiian music for her luau. This is a more appropriate instrument than Carol to accompany Strong Sad's Polynesian prose. This instrument sports the letter "M", standing either for "Marzipan" or as the monogram of the instrument's own (unknown) name.

The Cheat 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Keyboard The Cheat's keyboard is a Casio SK-1 portable sampling keyboard. The Cheat has played the Strong Badia National Anthem, a background beat for Strong Bad's chart-topping hit "Song About Sibbie," and the acoustics for "Everybody Knows It" on it. The Cheat's keyboard appears to have an extra key between E and F and two extra keys between B and C. According to Strong Bad in the Strong Bad Email guitar, if he had a band, The Cheat would play keyboards.
	DJ Equipment/Mixing When The Cheat is on tour as DJ Teh C., he uses a set of DJ equipment, which seems to include a pair of single turntables. He most likely also has a mixer board, as he is able to make an Indie-Tronic remix out of The Geddup Noise, as well as a remix of "Not Talkin' About Butter".
	Record Player See The Cheat's Record Player
	Drums The Cheat plays a trap set in the band Cool Tapes. In Cool Things and Weclome Back he plays a drum set with a crash cymbal, hi-hat, floor tom, snare drum and bass drum. He has "Cool Tapes" written on his bass drum head. Similarly, The Cheat portrays himself playing a set of Simmons electronic drums in the video for Everybody to the Limit. Since The Cheat lacks visible feet, it is unclear how he can operate the bass pedal and hi-hat.
	Flute The Cheat plays a flute as part of the song introducing email thunder, the 200th email.

Strong Bad 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Guitar Strong Bad was heard playing an as-yet unseen classical guitar in the postcard for "It's that CLOCK" in vacation. It is unknown whether the guitar actually belongs to Strong Bad or not.
	V-Factor Strong Bad first claimed to be able to play an electric guitar in the Strong Bad Email guitar, but he didn't demonstrate this. Later, in rock opera Strong Bad is seen playing a Gibson V-Factor. According to Strong Bad, he is schooled both in rhythm and solo playing styles (and his performance in "vacation", while a little rusty, seems to confirm this). The V-Factor is an understandable choice for Strong Bad, as it was the guitar of choice for heavy metal bands in the late '80s and early '90s before falling out of vogue during the "grunge" era in favor of the Fender Stratocaster.

Homestar Runner 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Floor Tom Homestar Runner plays a floor tom in the email do over. He plays it to help Strong Bad serenade Ali and Ali's sister. He plays it with only one stick and hits the head and the rim a couple of times, producing different pitches. It's possible that this is The Cheat's drum (from his Cool Tapes drum set).
	Electric Guitar In Most in the Graveyard, Homestar Runner dresses up as the titular role of the 1988 film Young Einstein, complete with the Young Einstein's prototypical electric guitar, which is featured in the movie poster.
	Piano In A Death-Defying Decemberween, Homestar Runner plays piano on the set of a TV show. His puppet counterpart also plays "Secret Song" from the Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits CD on the piano.

Homsar 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Theremin Homsar plays a theremin in Strong Bad's band DÖI during Baddest of the Bands. It's likely the theremin belongs to Homsar, as Strong Bad has no idea what it is when he first sees it. As a particularly large version of the instrument, Homsar plays it by flying in circles around it. Curiously, however, Homsar appears to be singing the note, rather than playing the instrument.

Strong Mad 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Electric Bass Strong Mad's bass is an instrument that Strong Mad plays in the band Cool Tapes with Marzipan and The Cheat. Based on the body shape, neck and head style, and its relatively small size, it appears to be a Höfner 500/1, the bass popularized by Paul McCartney. It is black and has Strong Mad's initials on the headstock. He was first seen playing the instrument in Cool Things as the band recorded their first Cool Tapes song. He later is seen playing it again in a topiary garden during the band's midwestern tour. In Baddest of the Bands, Strong Bad mentions that Strong Mad's bass is literally a "Heavy Bass", as the strings are apparently made out of the cables used to hold suspension bridges up.

Bubs 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Keytar Bubs's keytar is based on a Yamaha SHS-10 FM digital keyboard, whose most common variation is red and features colored buttons. With low-quality sounds and a $100 price tag, it was practically a toy, but had professional features like MIDI out, pitch-bend, and a two-digit LED display to indicate patch/program changes. The only significant difference between Bubs's keytar and a real SHS-10 is that Bubs's only has 24 keys, while the real one has 32. The keytar debuted in the email cheatday. Bubs had it behind the couch in the Basement of the Brothers Strong so he could help supply the music for the "Date of Birth Song".

Strong Sad 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Guitar Strong Sad plays a classical guitar in the email song for alternate universe. A drawing of Strong Sad playing a twelve-string guitar had previously appeared in the Sketchbook. That guitar was held right-handed, and Strong Sad was seen writing right-handed in record book and Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon. Nevertheless, he plays this six-string guitar left-handed.
	Piano Strong Sad plays a tribute to the late Daniel Johnston on this piano on September 19, 2019.
	Violin Strong Sad is also able to play the violin. He does so when Marzipan takes Cardboard Homestar on a date at Marshmallow's L'est Stand. Strong Sad plays this instrument right-handed, adding further evidence of his ambidexterity.

Pom Pom 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Keyboard Pom Pom plays an electronic keyboard. In Baddest of the Bands, he forms a band with Homestar Runner named PomStar, though he already had a highly-successful career as an instrumentalist, previously producing an album named Food-Related Love. He hired Homestar to ad-lib lyrics to his music, but, given Homestar's tendency to have a brain-freeze in mid-song, was forced to dictate lyrics to him while playing the keyboard at the Battle of the Bands contest. It is not clear why he cannot perform his own lyrics, given that the other characters have no trouble understanding him, though Strong Bad regards him as being unable to sing.

The King of Town 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Guitar As heard in "Not Talkin' About Butter", The King of Town "[plays] guitar, apparently!" The King also claimed in Lappynapped! to own "seventeen guitars, with a combined total of forty-three necks," which would require most of his guitars to be "triple necked". Such guitars exist, but are not standard production models, and would have to have been custom made. This is more likely a blatant lie. In Baddest of the Bands, The King of Town is seen playing a guitar for Strong Bad's band, DÖI.

The Hornblower 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Buisine The Hornblower plays the buisine, including in the K.O.T.H.S. Junior Varsity Marching Band.
	Saxophone The Hornblower plays a saxophone as part of All the King's Men!.

The Poopsmith 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Cymbals The Poopsmith plays the cymbals in the K.O.T.H.S. Junior Varsity Marching Band.

The Knight 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Bass Drum The Knight plays the bass drum in the K.O.T.H.S. Junior Varsity Marching Band.
	Acoustic Guitar The Knight plays a classical guitar in the movie theater.
	String Bass The Knight plays a string bass as part of All The King's Men!.

The Blacksmith 's Instruments

Image	Description	Appearances
	Drums The Blacksmith plays a small trap set as part of All The King's Men!. He appears to be left handed, since the snare drum is on the right hand side of the drum set.
	Maracas The Blacksmith plays four maracas in the movie theater.

Instruments played by Character Variations

Teenage

Image	Description	Appearances
	In the email high school, the teenage versions of Homestar, Marzipan, Strong Mad, and Strong Bad play in a band. However, Strong Bad's admitted "doodle memory" could mean that these characters were not able to play these instruments.

Old-Timey

Image	Description	Appearances
	Washboard The Homestar Runner plays "a mean worshboard" (labeled "worsh it!") that Stinkoman assumes is some kind of robot in 20X6 vs. 1936. A washboard is a homemade instrument that is played with a mallet.
	Banjo Old-Timey Bubs is briefly seen playing a four-string banjo in Ballad of The Sneak. It lacks several features typical of an actual banjo, such as visible tuning pegs, bracket hooks, and a tailpiece.
	Player Piano A player piano appears in Ballad of The Sneak, rolling along quickly and off a cliff. Being a player piano, it isn't played by any character, but The Sneak does hitch a ride on top of it.

Instruments played by "Created Characters"

Teen Girl Squad

Image	Description	Appearances
	In Issue 8, the girls join a battle of the bands as Kissyboots. Each of them plays an instrument in the band.

Saddy Dumpington

Image	Description	Appearances
	Washboard Saddy Dumpington is always seen carrying a mallet and wearing a washboard around his neck.

Instruments not played by any Characters

Image	Description	Appearances
	Trumpet After Homestar Runner breaks the rap song video in Fish Eye Lens, a trumpet and a plunger mute appear next to Strong Bad.
	Banjo After Homestar breaks the rap song video in Fish Eye Lens, a four-string banjo appears next to Coach Z. It appears more sophisticated than the one played by Old-Timey Bubs, but it still curiously lacks a tailpiece.