Upon further review… My new favorite musical intrument of all time is the Carillon as played by Cast in Bronze.  here is a youtube video of him playing tubular bells (The Exorcist theme)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WQovCG7PE

Savart’s Wheel

My favorite expiermental musical instrument looks like it comes from medievel times.  Savart’s wheel is said to make the world’s most obnoxios, irritating noise.  What I heard was a mix of a thirsty camel playing very high jazz saxiphone and a toddler using a cheese grater on a guitar.  Dispite the sheer horror of the tone I was delightfully suprised at the range of sounds it could achieve.  Savart’s wheel, a delightfully dynamic disaster of invention. 

A sample of this fine thing can be found here:  http://www.windworld.com/feature_pages/savart.htm