While reading this, I couldn't help but think of Les Paul (the man, not the guitar bearing his name that apparently 90% of Hubski either owns or once owned. Oh how the purists must have hated Les Pauls inventions. They certainly strayed us further and further away from "acoustical" recording. Also, I want a Stroh Violin. My new fantasy is that I casually stroll up to a garage sale and see one in pristine condition. It's marked at $20. I keep my cool and even manage to talk them down to $10. I never sell it but I record the bajeesus out of it and lend it to others that wish to make use of it in recording situations. It could happen.
After the Stroh violins they made a whole bunch of other Stroh-style instruments with a horn, including ukuleles and guitars. Most of these are fantastically rare now, but the "phonofiddles" are still quite common - these are the upright, one-stringed instruments you can see towards the bottom of this page:
http://www.springersmusic.co.uk/Library/Stroviols.htm I own a few of those, and they are an enormous amount of fun. I couldn't play if my life depended on it, but they are wonderful instruments. You can see a few of them in action from these two vaudevillians, Bennett and Williams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axzLEzasYUA
I felt very fortunate to find the Guthrie. He's been on my mind since this post: http://hubski.com/pub?id=21308
Thanks so much for that link. "Talking Empty Bed Blues" is utterly beautiful - these guys are great performers.