NEW GUITAR!!!!!!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010 - Rota

I have my new guitar!  And what a dream it is.

I actually had no intention of buying a new guitar.  I already had a fabulous Faustino Conde 1983 that made other guitarists insanely jealous every time they saw it.  But by chance, I took in for repairs my student model Conde that I use for fiestas and situations where the guitar might suffer damage.  I wanted to clean up some damage to the finish.  I was recommended to a guitar maker in Jerez, Andrew Smith.  This guy is half English and half Spanish - equally comfortable in either culture.

So I took my old guitar to Andrew and was immediately impressed by the depth of his knowledge about things guitaristic.  He had a few guitars around that he had made and I tried them out.  I was very impressed by how easy they were to play; better than anything I had played before.  And the sound was very decent.  I left my guitar with him and went home.  When I came back to pick it up, I played his guitars again - and took with me Steve Kahn, an excellent player and old friend.  Both of us played Andrew's guitars again and I was more impressed than ever.

Then as fate would have it, an old guitar that I had owned since the 60's finally found a buyer and I had a chunk of cash.  More than it would take to buy one of Andrew's guitars.  I wanted to save my good Conde just for concerts, so I wanted a guitar to play everyday and to take out at night.  And I figured that a new guitar would improve my outlook on life.  So I ordered one to be built to my specifications.

It started from pieces, everything created from scratch by Andrew.  But good pieces - cypress back and sides and a top of 1st quality Engleman Spruce.

Here is the top - as you can see, you can see light right through it.

Here is Andrew removing the cord that he uses to hold the bindings together while the glue is drying.  He is a traditionalist and uses hide glue and varnishes with French Polish, which is very labor intensive.

So here I am, getting a first look at my baby, mostly assembled.  You'll notice that it is nearly white because color is added during the varnishing phase.

And here it is all done, in my patio.  The workmanship was beautiful and Andrew wanted me to let it sit for a month or two for the varnish to continue to harden.  But there was no way I could do that!  The guitar is a total dream.  I enjoy playing it so much that I leave it sitting out on a chair and everytime I pass it, I have to play for a half-hour or more.  I've never played so much in my life and it has made an amazing difference it the way I play - with more improvement sure to come along.

To actually hear the guitar in action, here is a video recorded at the Saturday tertulia at our Peña - click on the link below and it will take you to YouTube.....
First Fiesta with the New Guitar

So, this has given my spirits a real boost.  In it's first 3 weeks of life, I went through a set of strings - even though I turned them end-for-end, a string broke.  The video above was shot just before the strings gave up.  I have never played so much to wear out strings so fast.  Everyone who hears it marvels at the sound.  And the guitar invites me play with more sentivity because it wants to sing.