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onlythemessenger The guitar's structure was all there, but needed new bridge & finger-plate, and I made those. I bought all the strings, tuning-pegs (not sure that's their proper name) and electrical parts.
The organ is still in the family - my brother has it, but I don't know if anyone in his family plays it.
I learnt the drums from a mixture of books and playing along to the radio, which introduced me to a wide range of styles.
One of the books was dedicated to pop and rock rhythms, which were fairly complex at the time, after a chapter devoted to the half-dozen or so rhythmic building-blocks called the "rudiments", and practice in playing with feet and hands.
Another was by the big-band leader and drummer, Buddy Rich, and concentrated solely on snare-drum "rudiments" up to the level of remarkably complex rhythms with strange names like "Triple Flam Paradiddle" - that to most of the audience were probably just rippling rolls.
The first though, had been written by a strict-temp dance-band drummer, and it was very dictatorial in style. It told us for example that the "Charleston Pedal" (hi-hat) is only used to augment louder brass choruses.
The problem with learning the drums is that you need a lot of patience and dedication to master the rudiments before you can start to play full, 4-limb rhythms, and the most basic exercises are very dull and mechanical. I made a practice-pad - just glued sheet rubber to a piece of plywood - so I could do so without too much noise. At least melodic instruments offer the chance to attempt a tune fairly early!
