Actually, many instruments available in the 1930s are not obsolete at all, but are still in use. Why, I believe that wooden bass is still available for sale!
Musical instruments are never obsolete! I was in a cave in the South of Spain with ancient paintings in it and there was a chamber with signs of use, deep in the system, which had hollow stalactites and stalagmites. They produced bongo like tones that resonated in the chamber. I beat out rhythms on them until my hands bled. I’m pretty sure that people 30,000 years ago did exactly the same…
Torchlight, psychedelics, caves, drumbeats, painting…
One of my odder experiences was hearing the Luray Caverns Organ playing “Shenandoah” with some of the notes missing. I’ll be within a few miles of it again in a couple of weeks, and I don’t think I’ll be able to resist a return visit.
Curiously, they built a one-string slide guitar out of 2x4s. And they didn’t even use the type of 2x4s that were available in the 1930s, either. They used modern, 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" 2x4s.
Thanks for this comment. My family and I are visiting Luray Caverns on vacation and you have reminded me to make sure we see and hear the Great Stalacpipe Organ! Of course they would play Shenandoah. I was overdosing on “Take Me Home, Country Roads” until my spouse said that we were even not taking the route through West Virginia.
Or they could have used an electric guitar,
“The first electrically amplified guitar was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, who was vice president.[3] The maple body prototype for the one-piece cast aluminum “frying pan” was built by Harry Watson, factory superintendent of the National Guitar Corporation.[3] Commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Electro-Patent-Instrument Company), in Los Angeles,[4][5] a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker (originally Rickenbacher), and Paul Barth.[6]”
Well, in the USA the lumber industry has tried to convince people that 2x4s were always undersized, and many intelligent people believe this. Usually they say “oh, they were 2 by 4 when they were cut green, and dried to this size. You can’t predict shrinkage, that’s why they are so irregular!” which is a load of tosh.
I disassembled a wall built in 1926 and the 2x4s were exactly 2 inches by 4 inches, with corners sharp enough to hurt yourself on. I didn’t actually weigh them, but they seemed to weigh about twice as much as modern 2x4s.
Do you know if these guys have done anything else? A little googling finds only this one video.
For those who don’t live in the UK, this is pretty much how every person in Shoreditch cafés looks and behaves (although this was filmed in Glasgow).
Needs more banjolele.
Resin filled. Try getting a nail through them compared to current 2x4’s.
You should look up the Stalactite Organ at Luray Caverns.
That was fucking awesome.
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