Archive for September, 2011
Hauser III ‘Segovia’
We found these pictures that David shot on a visit to Germany to visit Hauser himself. The guitar was still being made at the time. We have it for sale now and you can check it out here.
This past Sunday we hosted our long-anticipated celebration of the Pepe Romero Jr’s 200th guitar at the Santa Monica showroom. We hadn’t ever produced anything like this before, and in the end we were all really happy with how the night turned out in terms of attendance, atmosphere, and just hosting an evening dedicated to love of the guitar on all sides. Our friend Michael Young of Bodegas M supplied the delicious wine– they are growing Spanish grapes in the Paso Robles region of California, and we were pouring Tempranillo for red and Albariño for white, which was perfect for an evening dedicated to the Spanish guitar.
Click on the image to read more…
After JohnPaul talked to John Weissenrieder for a while David Collett, who has known John’s guitars for years, sat down to grill John some more, and here is that interview. They mention ‘Tacchi’ quite a bit, and that’s luthier Andrea Tacchi, with whom John apprenticed when he first moved to Italy.
I just discovered Gary Ryan, mostly because he’s playing a guitar made by my very good friend Stephen Hill, an English luthier who lives and works in La Heradura, which is on the Granada coast. I met Stephen in 1988 the first time I went to Spain, and I still have the 8th guitar Stephen ever made, back in 1989. Anyway, this Gary Ryan is a pretty impressive player, so enjoy.
While in Paris David also met with luthier Thomas Norwood. Thomas has lived and worked in Paris for 35 years now, and considers himself a French luthier, but he’s originally from Pasadena, CA, just down the road from us. He makes three models – one based on a 1910 Manuel Ramirez, one on a 1932 Esteso, and one on a 1935 Santos. David says that his guitars are beautifully made and have a real old-world sound. We’ll be receiving our first guitar from him this year or early next year.
Here are some photos of David, his wife Heike and luthier Jean-Noel Rohe in Strasbourg, which is practically in Germany, and which is where Jean-Noel works. Jean-Noel and David chose woods for the back and sides of the guitar that will be delivered in December. The city looks cute, but I won’t pretend that that meal looks too appetizing.
Here’s Dominique Field with one of the two guitars he’s currently building for GSI (they’ll be here in November). He’s changed his standard rosette just a little, so if you look closely (and assuming you’re familiar with his standard rosette) you’ll notice some new details. The rest of the photos are of the Montmartre area, which is where Field’s shop is.
So David Collett went to Paris, poor thing, to pick up a new guitar from Daniel Friederich, and while there he stopped in with a few of the French luthiers we represent to see how our guitars were coming along and to say hi. Following are some photos he took with, and in the neighborhoods of, Friederich, Dominique Field, Jean Noel Rohe and Thomas Norwood. As always, click on the images to see them bigger.
Here’s Daniel Friederich, the grand-master of French luthiery, playing the new 2011 guitar that David just picked up for GSI. One of those cedar tops is for GSI’s next guitar.
We’ve just received three new guitars from Lucas Martin in Granada, including this really cool flamenco with African rosewood. I was surprised that it had the snap you usually associate with a blanca but with that negra depth, if that makes any sense. I really like this guitar. So here’s me playing some Granaina stuff I’m writing and obviously need to practice more.
John Weissenrieder is an American luthier living in Florence, Italy, who has made a name for himself making exquisite copies of guitars by the old masters including Garcia, Simplicio and Bouchet. John was in town this week with his family, and he stopped by the shop to say hi, so we took the opportunity to do an informal interview. In parts 1 and 2 he talks with JohnPaul Trotter, and in parts 3 and 4 he talks with David Collett.
