wow that kids pretty good! i'm well out of participating in astronomy these days, did it pretty full on, by my standards for a city slicker, for about 13 years, but i do still visit here regularly when i need reminding there are good people in this very cynical world who like to excercise their brains occasionally, and still read about stuff going on. just not enough time, and i am back into music in a big way, like i was before astronomy took over equal billing, after getting hooked after hanging around after band practices at a mates house who happened to be into making scopes at the time,
yes the correlation between interest in astronomy and music seems to be quite common, must be the dreamers/heart of a poet/sense of wonder - something?
i was blown away when i was first privileged to visit Don Morrison's, of world renowned Donmo resonator guitars fame, workshop, and noticed an interesting shape under wraps, turned out to be a 10 inch f20 folded newt, with the classic wooden box tube, he had another slightly smaller folded newt as well.
on his website he says ' I’d always been handy with tools and my last hobby - grinding telescope mirrors and lenses - gave me confidence that I could make almost anything! ' from here
http://www.donmo.com/%20Guitarsite/About%20Don.html
Don's a very talented musician/writer and is very funny also, with a number of CD's and acts over the years and in the present, in fact theres not much he cant do i suspect, and he's great down to earth bloke in the bargain!
anyway
I love my Donmo's, a rustbucket tricone mainly in open G and D and d standard, and a galvo single cone wich i keep in open A and E and standard,
i am going backwards in time musically, to when their was no 'star system' like there was from 40's 50's onwards, pre-war blues specially, and they werent self-consciously tainted with that particular mindset, and still had a large spiritual element to the music, not that i dont like anything postwar, plenty in fact. and with all these mind blowing re-masterings since the mid 90's going on thanks to modern technology, and it only keeps getting better in fact, to all era's of music, particularly blues,
so listening to a LOT of remastered blind willie johnson, RJ, charley patton, fred mcdowell, leadbelly, son house, skip james, blind willie mctell, right up thru muddy waters, howlin wolf, robert nighthawk, elmore james, rev gary davis rl burnside .. the list is very long and getting longer, i cant get over the depth of the blues it goes as far as the eye can see, a lot like astronomy
i think those ridiculous over inflated prices for old strats ect. are rightfully crumbling, with the hedge funds that created them, - you can buy a new custom shop strat for 3/4k au every bit as good, playing and sound wise, as some crumbling classic, with corroded wiring/innards ect., my '06 custom shop classic is evry bit a '62 '63 strat and more, classic just means completely hand made/crafted, like they used to be in the first place!