What's your favorite instrument that really gets through to you?

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

One of my favourite Arrested Development lines is this "And, like all bagpipe music, it was hard to tell if it was good music played horribly, or horrible music played well." :-)
Seriously though, it can sound mighty impressive when done right - living in Edinburgh though, I could do without the street corner pipers belting out Don't Stop Believing and the like!
Wish I could upvote this 10000x

a hurdy gurdy

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

For a bit of fun, find the YT of Sulek & Hauser "Welcome to the Jungle"
HE may play the cello but YOU the one that gets played ;)

The oboe 🤌🏽💋

One of my more decent pieces has an oboe and a horn duet as the melody. The oboe is such a unique and beautiful sounding instrument that pairs well with many more softer instruments
Allegedly George Bernard Shaw said this about the oboe: "An ill wind that nobody blows good."

The sax

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

Accordion is an unusual choice, but in Karla Bonoff's "Water is Wide" the accordion is essential and beautiful. James Taylor sings back up.

Do synthesizers count?

Dont let anyone ever tell you ~~they~~ it they don't ;)

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

There is a great Spotify playlist for the Hammond.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2z3UdHynR5SMUu1xW45EfI
- Link, please

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

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

pedal steel or any sort of slide guitar

Especially played by David Gilmour

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.

Hell yeah.
Yes everything about this, except downtuning is overrated imo

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.

Oh man a nice cold speculum, nothing better
OP didn't say "musical"...

Bass is so fun

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.

instrumental music can also be emotionally charged, no?
- Certainly, but if you hear a crying person, for instance, many (though, not all) people will instinctively feel for that person. Instrumental music can invoke similar feelings, either through associatation or because certain sounds hit those same chords, so to speak (I'm thinking the difference between major and minor chords, or when something is off key).
  Vocals, like acting, can have that more direct line to your empathy. At least, that's my thinking. A really good song can give me goosebumps too, though.

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.

Clarinets. Absolutely love those when played right.

Spanish guitar.

- The sitar originates from the Indian subcontinent my dude, not Iberia.

I have three.

Piano -> Violin -> Cello

Isnt there an instrument called violincello or something?
- Violoncello is the proper full name of the Cello! They're the same thing.
- The technical name of the cello, yes, I think so...
- Cello is a shortened version of violoncello.

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

🔥🔥🔥😍

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

otamatone

Hammond organ

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

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

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

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

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

I'm curious if you've ever held a guitar, or touched one as it was played? Acoustic guitars, especially when playing on the lower strings, vibrate quite a lot, sometimes it feels like a purring cat.
- Yeah, all instruments pretty much vibrates. It's just that I like certain ones.

The sitar!

Only the scalpel gets through to me, because I don't believe in acupuncture.

:-)

A mandolin.

A lot of my instrumentation works on LVDTs, and I think they are pretty neat anyway. Great for position sensing.

Harpsichord. Almost forgot about that one. when Tori Amos breaks out the dual piano/harpsichord, great things happen.

Very close 2-3rd for me. I love how sharp and distinct its tone is.

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

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

Reminded me about vibraphone ;)

A singing saw, love the ghosty sound of it.

<3 Little Mazarn

Handpan

I'm more partial to the sustain on the RAV, but could lose myself in either.

The instrument I want to learn to play (but have no reason to do so) is the hammered dulcimer.

The instrument that most makes me perk up when I hear it in a song is the bass (or contrabass) saxophone.

Idk, compasses are quite cool and useful?

What do they do? Or is this a joke answer
- They point north. Or create circles.

It's simple, piano. It's funny, I've trying to learn this instrument since back when my late father bought one, yet I still can't play one.

Vibraphone

Very cool too and vaguely consistent with my other picks. They're all metallic percussive keyboard type instruments involving mallets to some extent

Edit: Metallophones seem to be my sweet spot, in terms of instrument category

I'm going with the Mellotron.

It's a keyboard that uses strings of tapes for each note. It pulls the tape over a head and plays that note until the tape runs out. When you're playing fast, sometimes the tape isn't all the way down, so it makes everything sound super custom.

Think Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. That's a Mellotron you're hearing.

Synth

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.

Violins can turn anything epic

Harpsichord. Below the streets of St Paul in (that) London.

If you know, you know.

Whatever instrument Peter Pringle is playing in this vid:

Lament for Enkidu

Frickin haunting

PS controller

A true artist
- OP never specified what type of instrument. An Erlenmeyer flask is also an instrument. So is a stick 😂

Rhodes Piano, hands down.

I'm a piano kind of guy myself.

Synth.

Fight me.

As a musician the Monome Norns raspberry pi shield and lines community has been inspiring me a lot lately. It's a FOSS "sound computer" that can take on hundreds of uses.

Ukulele. It's so easy to play, C is just one string! And they're small enough to take in your carry on if you travel. I own 5...

Agree on music box. For me, it's also violins.

This

(Recommend skipping to about 1:45.)