Good spot. Following that link, there was an "up next" video of what looks like a trade-show demo of an "Eigenharp" - in which they describe "Touch 3D": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9qPf31xYnY
Not quite "3D Touch", but it makes you think!
(Amazed to see that the company behind this "instrument" appear to be still in business: http://www.eigenlabs.com/
I genuinely thought this story was in reference to Mitch Hedberg's "glass harmonica". He had a great riff on hotel minibars' use of oddball containers for serving ordinary things like Coke in such a way that the patron can't replace the item before the hotel tallies its consumption.
As already pointed out, he was a drug user ("I like the Fed-Ex guy because he's a drug dealer and he don't even know it").
But the delivery is his style. Whether it's natural or not I don't know, but it certainly was an integral part of his comedy, similar to the monotone of Steven Wright (whom Mitch Hedberg is the spiritual successor to, in my opinion).
EDIT: Curiously, Hedberg suffered from terrible stage fright. I find him funny to listen to, but almost uncomfortable to watch because he would often stare at the stage or close his eyes.
Does anyone from the UK remember ITV's Picture Box [0] (a children/schools programme) and was old enough to be at school in the 70's when it was broadcast?
For years I thought they used a glass harmonica for the theme tune, but it turns out it was played on an even more unusual instrument, the "Cristal baschet" [1][2][3]. Also made of glass and relying on wet fingers to produce notes.
The armonica is a truly beautiful instrument, but in terms of technical difficulty and impressive performance I still much prefer original many-cups-of-water glass harmonicas/harps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdoTdG_VNV4
Definitely. Another cool example that has some impressively fast passages, and also a novel sort of vibraphone-esque table-shaking technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAEXH9DAH98
$40,000 each seems like a lot for an instrument there's not that much demand for, and is likely itself an impediment to further adoption.
Is there something about the construction of this instrument that justifies this kind of price beyond just "we don't make a lot, so we've got to charge a lot for the ones we do make?"
Pretty tiny amounts of lead are damaging to young children, like age 0-6. It causes neurological damage, decreasing IQ and attention span; increasing aggression. It is such a pervasive effect that researchers find very strong correlation between the phaseout of lead in paint and fuel and decrease in crime 20 years later.
I find it hard to believe that this does any more damage to peripheral nerves than jamming a steel wire into your fingers over and over (aka--playing guitar).
Here is a link to one being played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQemvyyJ--g