People seem genuinely interested as to why we used such unusual instruments on “Doomsday Piano”; I’ve explained our rationale previously; here’s some additional information.
For me, “King Curly” has always been a study in bum notes, the places between metronomic perfection that music can live. Imagine my delight, then, when we discovered a mother-lode of over 25 instruments – invented by an eccentric Australian who had learnt his craft as a violin-maker in Europe – all of which were fantastically difficult to tune. A double-bass made from planks and paling wire that needed a spanner to tune. A driftwood cornet from which apparently only James Morrison could extract a pleasing sound (good for you, James!)
I have since adopted my favorite from the collection: 
The Doomsday Guitar. Like a lot of beautiful things, it teeters on the brink of ugliness. A box of rough, splinter-inducing wood encased in dried flesh (possibly human).
Strong men and women have been repulsed by the unshaven hide of an instrument more wolf than dog. It sounds a bit like a banjo I suppose, but with an earthy dullness that’s far more evocative. I love the Doomsday Guitar more than most things.
Here is Gunslinger Elmo with the Doomsday guitar.
“King Curly” and “Doomsday Piano” owe the inventor of these ungainly instruments a great deal. As does the world; if God loved David because he was a musician, then surely He will favourably regard the inventors of such.
Here’s the ukelele I played on “The Bumblebee Has No Home” - nothing unusual about it save for the fact that it is very broken and held together with a clamp from the shed. This only made it sound better. One day all ukeleles will look like this.
Another challenge was to find a piano sufficiently ruined for our purposes – but not yet busted enough to be unplayable. As is so often the case, we found a beautifully wrecked beast at the 11th hour – a poor little hallway critter that no-one had touched for years. Out of tune, derelict and abandoned, it was resurrected – perhaps unwillingly – for “Doomsday Piano”.
We pulled off the panels to expose the the little beast even further, but anyone who has listened to “Doomsday Piano” would have to acknowledge that piano went out like a champ.
Sadly, we cannae tell ye the location of the Doomsday Piano cos the album was recorded secretly. Rest assured however, this beautiful piano is hidden in a place where no-one will ever play it – in the heart of the music-biz empire – right under their noses!
UPDATE 
odgy MP3 replaced with functioning one.
