@edcyn: In the mid-90’s District Supervisor Bob Fetryl offered me the Panorama City store to manage, but I had heard about the drive-by-shootings the store had experienced. No thanks! Bad neighborhood, and I loved my BMW 528e ;-) .
For those who know the sound of an old harpsichord, the recordings of Trevor Pinnock performing works by Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and various members of the Bach family will love his LP’s on the UK label CRD. Fantastic music, fantastic sound!
For the sound of the cello, get a copy of Janos Starker performing J.S. Bach’s Suites For Unaccompanied Cello. The Mercury Records original is almost impossible to find (and very expensive when it is), but Speaker’s Corner has a great 3-LP reissue (retailing for around $100), and Analogue Productions a 6-LP (45 RPM) version ($200-ish).
For the sound of a drumset, there is the old standby: The Sheffield Drum Record, a direct-to-disc LP on Sheffield Labs. Studio great Jim Keltner on one side, Ron Tutt (most well known for his work with Elvis Presley) on the other.
For stringed instruments, few commercial recordings come close to the sound Kavi Alexander captured of Ry Cooder and B.M. Bhatt improvising together, released on Water Lily Records, and earning both Cooder and Bhatt Grammy’s for Best World Music Album in 1994. The LP was mastered by Kevin Gray (who has done a lot of LP’s for Analogue Productions, including the entire Capitol Records Beach Boys’ catalogue), and serving as Technical Advisor was the late, great Tim de Paravicini, designer of the EAR-Yoshino amps and pre-amps. Kavi’s vacuum tube recorder, by the way, was fitted with tubes from another late great, Roger Modjeski of Music Reference and RAM Tube Works fame.
And don't forget Muddy Waters Folk Singer, available in a couple of pressings. I have the old version reissued by MoFi, but I'm sure the current one on Analogue Productions is even better at presenting Muddy's voice and acoustic guitar.