@AndyBonner @ElementsInSpace Although this question is about instrument identification don't you feel it belongs in Music.SE? Or there is another reason why this should be 'in' while others 'out'?

@GratefulDisciple There are lots of instrument identification questions (IIQ’s) on M:P&T. Many have been closed or deleted, but and some have been left open and received lot of up-votes.

Our Help Center specifically says that questions about identifying an instrument are not on-topic.

Personally, I don’t really agree that all IIQ’s should be off-topic; some of these are much better than others, such as:

1. Brass instruments with bells behind the player (the one you mention)

2. An instrument I don’t recognize (photo included)

3. Can anyone identify the instrument that James Morrison is playing in this picture?

4. I am a recorder player and have come across a strange version, would like to know more

5. What is this natural trumpet?

6. Which (apparently keyboard) instrument is this?

There have been a number of discussions on our meta about IIQ’s (we even used to have an identification tag):

1. How to write an acceptable instrument/equipment identification question

2. Why are instrument identification questions off-topic?

3. Instrument-Identification tag

4. Do we still agree that identification of types of instrument is on topic? Should we change the on-topic page, or the identification tag guidance?

5. Why does the identification tag specify instruments, even though those questions might be off-topic?

6. Do we need the [identification] tag?

But these are all (at least 4 years) old, I think we are probably due for another discussion regarding IIQ’s. If you (or someone else) would like to start this off then that’d be great. And if we can reach a general community consensus (one way or the other) then we can update our Help Center to make the site policy clear.

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As for Music Fans, their [identify-this-instrument] tag says: “NO LONGER ON TOPIC. DO NOT USE.”, so sending IID’s there is not a good idea.

@ElementsInSpace Wow, thanks for all those examples, help one to think of a general rule. Maybe if it is 1) acoustic; and 2) ethnic or variations of an established western orchestral instrument and 3) have a distinctive shape, not a minute variation of a known instrument, it is likely to qualify? This would disqualify the countless varieties of an electric guitar or an electric keyboard. But then, maybe it's a case by case depending on community's feel via voting.

I don't think "acoustic" should be the qualifier. More like, identifying brands and models should be off-topic, type of instrument should be okay. So if the asker wants an answer along the lines of "this is called a theremin", that's on-topic, while if they want "this is a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop from 1955", get thee to a specialised forum.