Posts Tagged ‘GSI’
Student Flamencos – 33 Second Demos
I didn’t set out to make each video exactly 33 seconds long, but that’s how it turned out. I got some emails last week asking about the various student model flamencos under $1,000, so I thought I should do some videos of them. I did some demos last week that were a bit longer and this week I was playing around with the idea of the shortest possible video to give an idea of the guitar. The result turns out to be the 33 second video. Feel free to let me know if this gives you guys enough of an idea to form an opinion of the guitars, or if they’re just too short.
It’s been a little over a month, and we haven’t properly introduced our new showroom to you all. We’re pretty excited about it – it’s a beautiful and great sounding space. And oddly enough it happens to have what appears to be a lattice-braced ceiling. The idea, of course, is for you all to stop by and play some amazing guitars in an amazing space. We look forward to seeing you here.
We have two new David Rouse guitars coming soon, so here’s a peek at them in progress. One is a Flamenco and the other is a Cedar-top Classical. Not sure on the ETA, but from the pix they look pretty close.
These don’t come in very often – a brand new Hermann Hauser III. The guitar should be on its way very soon. Notice that the label reads 2008. Apparently his process is such that this guitar was actually begun in 2008 and is only now about to be finished.
This one’s kind of hard to beat – Just review any product on the GSI website and you get a $25 store credit.
From now until the end of the month, anyone who leaves an online review of one of our products is entitled to $25 worth of GSI store credit, to be used towards anything on our site. Simply create the review on the product’s info page, and email us the link to the GSI product page. We’ll reply with instructions on how to use your $25 credit. Limit one Store Credit per user.
So get reviewing.
Classical guitarist Francisco Gil stopped by the shop this week, and he’s such a great player that we just had to record him playing some great guitars. Here’s he’s playing Albeniz’ ‘Capricho Catalan’ on a Jochen Rothel Spruce top guitar, which you can check out here. We’ll also be carrying some of his CD’s soon, so check back if you want to hear more.
While in Madrid I went with my friend and teacher David Cerreduela and his son Israel to try out guitars at Felipe Conde’s new shop in Madrid. It’s just amazing to be around David and watch him play, and his son is pretty amazing too, so look out for both of them.
The new shop is very cool – I’ll be posting some pics and more video soon. And David liked this guitar so much he ended up buying it.
We have two classical guitars coming in from Tobias Berg in about a week, so I wanted to post some of these ‘in progress’ shots as a taste of what will be arriving. One guitar is Spruce with Indian Rosewood back and sides, and the other is Cedar with Pau Ferro back and sides.
Up until last week I may have been the only Flamenco guitarist in the world with a degree from Berklee. Now I get to share that distinction with Paco De Lucia, who was presented with an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston on May 8th. See how I made that about me?
Of course I wouldn’t dream of comparing myself (or anyone else, come to think of it) to Paco. As most of you already know, he completely revolutionized Flamenco without ever, even for a moment, debasing it. There may have been a time when people would debate whether Paco’s music was Flamenco, since it sounded so new, but history has pretty much put that debate to rest. Paco is Flamenco.
I may be biased, but I think he’s one of the few unequivocal geniuses of the past century in any genre of music. As a virtuoso, as a composer, as an accompanist and as a Flamenco, he pretty much can’t be touched, and he inspires every Flamenco guitarist who has ever heard him (which is all of us). If you’ve never heard Paco just stop reading and go listen now.
I’ll stop gushing now and just send Paco a very sincere Ole and thank Berklee for finally recognizing a great musical genius.
Part 2 of my interview with Manuel Reyes, who many consider to be the greatest living builder of Flamenco guitars. Seems that with the exception of those born to guitar making fathers, they all started out wanting to play, so maybe we’re lucky they weren’t good guitarists..
