Following a meticulous restoration project, the interior has been lovingly restored and includes some beautiful replica instruments.
"Consumers use contagious and imitative magic to imbue replica instruments with power," Dr. Fernandez and Dr. Lastovicka write in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
However, since 2001 there have been two replica instruments: The Ondea and the French Connection – created at the request and to the specifics of Jonny Greenwood, who was reluctant to take his precious ondes martenot on the road.
One of the undeniably successful ventures was collaboration with former Guns n' Roses axe slinger Slash that produced several interesting models ranging from the couple-a-hundred-buck Epiphone to an aged-replica instrument that was an exact duplicate of the guitarist's own instrument (all the way down to the scuffs and cigarette burns) that ran about ten grand.
Each beam replica was instrumented with internal and external instrumentation consisting of strain gauges, linear voltage differential transducers (LVDTs) and string potentiometers, and tested to complete structural failure under quasi-static symmetric displacement reversals.
McCue, who led the research, said the team wanted to use replicas of instruments from the period.
We know this thanks to Wulf Hein, an "experimental archeologist" who made a replica of the instrument – and can be seen on YouTube, dressed in animal skins, using it to play The Star-Spangled Banner.
Calibration issues are investigated by in-flight monitoring using several complementary calibration sources, as well as an on-ground replica of the GOME instrument.
Many of the dials that survive are digital replicas of analog instruments.
Replicas of ancient instruments are also used in programs that feature reconstructed ancient music and dance.
A few years ago, Thomas Meixner, a frequent Musikfabrik collaborator, undertook the arduous task of making replicas of the instruments, some twenty-five in all.
