A Day Trip to Carnegie Science Center

My brothers, Andy and Tim, were in town to visit for a long weekend. I read that there was a guitar exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center, and the three of us all love music and like to play around on different instruments, so we decided to go check it out.

Andy took J around the room...

... while Tim designed his own guitar:

Julian picked out and posed with his three favorite instruments (from left to right).

1. The Ibanez Jem: A Fender Strat-style guitar with double humbuckers to make its sound just as strong as its green color.

2. The Sitar: An instrument that originated on the Indian subcontinent in the 16th century and was brought into the Western world of rock by the Beatles in the 1960's.

3. The Chirango: An instrument from Bolivia that looks like a mini-acoustic guitar with a body that is made from an armadillo shell!

I picked out some of cool ones, too (starting top left and going around the rectangle clockwise).

1. Vihuela: The first "guitar-like" instrument from the Iberian peninsula (Spain + Portgual) from which the Spanish classical guitar originated.

2. Nyatiti: This instrument comes from Kenya. It was really cool how, despite the idea commonly held conception that the Spanish invented the guitar, every continent except Antarctica was represented in this exhibit--This one obviously being one of a few from Africa. Another cool trend was that it seemed like all around the world it was common for makers of these instruments to use animal skin on the instrument's body. The wooden body of this one is covered by cow skin.

3. USSR Rostov Stella: This electric guitar was invented in the Soviet Union in 1975 during the Cold War when the Soviets refused to import guitars that were made, or even looked like the style of those made in the United States.

4. Tanbur: This is one of the world's oldest stringed instruments. The exhibit was unsure of the Tanbur's date of origin. The sign said, "Unknown (estimated 3,000 BC)." The tanbur originated in Persia (modern-day Iran) and was used primarily as a folk instrument by the Kurdish people.

Unfortunately for Tim, he couldn't beat a robot in air hockey...

Ally came across her favorite fart chair. Did she do it better in 2017...

... or 2022?