It takes time to learn and maintain a musical instrument. As world renowned multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist David Lindley knows, it takes even more time to learn and maintain 100 instruments.

Throughout his career, Lindley has accumulated instruments from all over the world and used parts of “cheap” guitars to make new creations.

Lindley admitted most of his instruments are not the kind that can be found at a local music store.

“Most of them are legitimate, but some of them are monsters,” he said.

Lindley will be bringing nine of his instruments and his sidekick, drummer Wally Ingram, to The M-shop Wednesday night for a show that involves tools ranging from the Weissenborn Hawaiian lap steel guitar to the Turkish saz.

Though Lindley may have accumulated some pretty odd instruments throughout his travels, he started playing on the basics.

When he was four years old, he played the violin — but he didn’t play it like a violin, he played it like a cello.

“I liked the good and the bad sounds,” Lindley said. “I liked what it did to people. You can drive people up the wall with it. Eventually, the bridge broke — which was unfortunate for me, but fortunate for [my parents].”

It wasn’t until he was 14 years old that Lindley began playing the guitar. But after studying classical guitar for a while, he decided it wasn’t the style for him.

Lindley said he did benefit from his classical lessons though, because he learned valuable techniques that couldn’t have been learned anywhere else.

“I learned some flamenco techniques,” Lindley said. “I took what was useful to me.”

Classical techniques aren’t the only ones that have proven useful in Lindley’s performances. During his shows, Lindley has been known to incorporate music from Africa, Arabia, Asia, Madagascar and Turkey along with traditional American folk, blues and bluegrass.

Out of all of these countries, Lindley said the Turkish techniques have been the most difficult to master.

“Classical Turkish music involves 700 scales,” Lindley said. “I learned four of the scales, and I barely scratched the surface with that.”

He may have lots more to learn about Turkish tonality, but he has more than scratched the surface as a professional musician.

Before his solo career, Lindley worked as a well-known studio musician who recorded with the likes of Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton.

But after a while, Lindley got tired of being a studio musician.

“People started calling me up, and some people would say ‘bring everything,'” Lindley said. “I started doing some things I didn’t want to do and decided it would be better to do stuff I liked.”

So in 1981, Lindley created El Rayo-X, a band that has toured the world repeatedly and helped Lindley understand music from different cultures. During his eight years with El Rayo-X, Lindley put out three studio recordings, a live E.P. and the solo album “Mr. Dave.”

Lindley’s travels have taken him to Ames before, and the musician is looking forward to returning to The M-Shop with Ingram.

“He has an amazing drum set with drums that no one ever hears,” Lindley said. “He can play all different kinds of things. You can’t fake that stuff.”

Lindley and Ingram will play two shows tonight at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for students and $10 general admission.