Rear neighbour that makes parping noises (4)
I believe the answer is:
tuba
'rear neighbour that makes parping noises' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'rear neighbour' is the wordplay.
'rear' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (I've seen 'rearing' mean this (as in a horse rearing up)).
'neighbour' becomes 'abut' (I've seen this before).
'abut' back-to-front is 'TUBA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tuba that I've seen before include "Large brass wind instrument" , "Brass band instrument" , "One's blown" , "A bass instrument" , "member of band" .)