Who Invented the Guitar?

The earliest stringed instrument known may have been the bowl harp from nearly 4000 years ago. With a tortoise shell for the body and a curved stick for the neck, adding a few strings allowed the making of music.
The tanbur might have been next. A straight neck allowed pressing the strings down to produce a wider range of tones. A tanbur, dating from about 3500 years ago may be seen at the Archaeological Museum in Cairo.

The Absolute Truth About Photo Restoration

As an impatient nation, we’re always looking for faster ways of getting things done. In restoring and preserving vintage photos, for example, there are online services promising fast results at low prices. Why not use them? The answer lies in the details.

The absolute truth is that online services have no direct access to your original image. Whether it’s a vintage photograph, newspaper clipping, or handwritten letter from 1853, online services can only work with the digitized images you send them.

If your original photo or document has been physically damaged and won’t scan properly, what do you do?
When your original is too large for the scanner, how do you handle that?
If, for technical reasons, you’re unable to send a sufficiently high-resolution file, your retouching options may be severely limited. How do you get the results you want?
The answer, of course, is by using professional services right in the neighborhood!

You Asked For It!

In the business world, being a “One-Trick Pony” can be risky, and diversification becomes necessary for continued growth. Sometimes that happens as a natural process of evolution. When someone asks, “What do you do at your studio?” the answer is, “What do you want?”

The business started in 1967 as a location recording service for musicians, capturing their performances “live” as they happened.
Then, when someone asked about an actual studio, I had to create one.
Requests for recording of larger groups led to moving to larger quarters.
When someone asked about a video interview with a parent, lights, camera and tripod were added.
An advertising executive heard me emceeing at a club, liked my voice, and asked me to read the script for a radio commercial.
Someone else heard the commercial and asked me to narrate a corporate audiovisual presentation. That’s like a commercial, but longer. Since then, working with other voiceover artists, we’ve produced hundreds of commercials and corporate training programs.
A request for instruction led me to offer private coaching in the effective use of the voice – for speaking or for singing.
A postcard request on a community bulletin board led to creating character voices, original music and sound effects for professional puppet shows.
When a neighbor asked about converting a vintage audiotape to disk, a new line of related services was born. CDs are now made from open-reel tapes, audiocassettes, micro cassettes and all forms of phonograph records.
When someone asked about restoring a damaged photograph, an additional workstation was installed to handle the request. Developing that process led to restoring and preserving vintage photos, documents, certificates, hand-written letters, etc.
In response to a request to restore and preserve a vintage video, some new equipment – and an extra computer – added yet another new service.