Bagpipes. One of the few instruments that can both make you cry and make you want to charge into battle.

The oboe 🤌🏽💋

Cello. No idea why. Yo-Yo Ma slays me.

a hurdy gurdy

Accordion... I love the sound of it, especially the Italian ones with chambers.

The sax

A trumpet properly played cuts directly to that bittersweet, blue part of my soul.

Hammond organ played well really makes me feel warm to the core

Do synthesizers count?

pedal steel or any sort of slide guitar

French horn, for sure. You'd be surprised at just how prevalent it is in music.

Electric guitar, preferably with heavy distortion. Louder := better.

No but seriously I love heavy music so much. It's fun to listen to, fun to play, and it's just had a positive impact on my life. If you want to really tug on my blackened heartstrings, you gotta do it through distortion, preferably an HM-2, in as low a tuning as your guitar can handle.

Singing, although I guess it's kind of cheating since it can be emotionally charged (I get goose bumps from certain songs).

Instrumental... Cello or bass guitar, depending on mood. Give me a good bass line and it'll get me going.

I find the speculum to be excellent at letting me see deep inside myself. Instruments like ribcage spreaders are too infrequently used to count I think. A good seasonal look with the speculum could save you a lot of heartache.

Bass is so fun

Pipe Organ. The only instrument with the versatility of an orchestra at your fingertips. It can make the room shake or fill it with quiet whispers.

Sadly, Churches are one of the few places, in the US at least, where you can hear the organ regularly. Ones that can afford to maintain such a large instrument and pay an organist.

otamatone

A Kora! It's an African instrument that is considered a guitar harp, with 21 strings ranging from the size of bass guitar string to fishing wire. The way it is played allows you to play the bass, lead, and rhythm at the same time. Here is a short example of a master kora player Toumani Diabate showcasing the instrument: https://youtu.be/8luhdxS2KuM?si=llpa2YVyIOf77_Nd

As a guitarist I found this guy who transcribed Toumani's work onto a classical guitar, very interesting listen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=55QnOlXckOk

My other thing would be trippy out there instruments that seem to put you in a different state of mind like the Yaybahar or "The Beam" that the grateful dead likes to break out sometimes

Yaybahar example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_aY6TxC1ojA&pp=ygUWeWVoYWJhciBhdCBpbnN0cnVtZW50IA%3D%3D

The Beam example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0h8o-1IQ5G0&pp=ygUSZ3JhdGVmdWwgZGVhZCBiZWFt

I really appreciate strings in general, but no instrument can emotionally move me like the violin. A melancholic violin section in an already sad song is a surefire way to make me tear up. I've never been very good at playing any instrument, but I've been tempted to pick up the violin to see if it feels as good to play as it does to hear.

Piano! Call me basic, I do not care! Versatile, beautiful, fun to play. I could talk for hours about it.

Spanish guitar.

Clarinets. Absolutely love those when played right.

The french horn gets me in the feels every time. I think it's because it reminds me of dressing up fancy and going to the symphony with my aunt as a school aged kid, as well as candle lit Christmas eve services that heavily featured them.

I have three.

Piano -> Violin -> Cello

A large Casavant. Any pipe organ really, but a large one with tones below the human hearing threshold really hit hard in person. They give me nonstop frisson. Almost can’t handle it, and tears stream down my face the whole time, but not from sadness; just a physiological reaction.

Drums, but I may be slightly biased because I play them

Pedal Steel. First time I saw one played live was at a Bright Eyes show when I was in high school. I know they’ve been around for a long time and are prominent in country music, but watching and hearing it played in person just blew me away. I feel like the instrument conveys so much emotion in its sound

As a Deaf person, anything that gives good vibration/bass: Drum and Bass Guitar, make or break the music for me.

If it's got strings, it's good. This includes piano.

synths, especially when using longer stretched out notes like in Kavinsky's Outsider

song - https://youtu.be/_Dhk_e2DmhI?si=DdEdPj6LMOlZGQFw

Would also accept calliope if I'm feeling quaint ;)

Handpan

The sitar!

Hammond organ

Marimba

one of my friends rents one and played a few pieces for me. it was like existing outside of the rest of space and time. he's really good at it and it just sounds magical