You can see the same sort of thing with other instruments of creative professions, too. Like, look at machine tools. Modern lathes are made tough, well, and of

You can see the same sort of thing with other instruments of creative professions, too. Like, look at machine tools. Modern lathes are made tough, well, and often with features like CNC attachments. But the 'old iron' behemoths produced by South Bend in the 1920s are also still running and performing precise work day-in, day-out. They'll probably continue to do so for a very long time, and they'll still blow a modern introductory benchtop model out of the water. Is it really that the old models were in some way 'perfect', or is it just that we tend to be impressed by bespoke works which continue to perform outstandingly over the ravages of time? Maybe it appeals to a sense that we could someday overcome the transience of our possessions. I guess that's sort of an existentially futile goal to chase, but it would be nice in the context of things like batteries and plastic junk.