2008 Newport Guitar Festival in Miami Beach

April 22nd, 2008

From April 11 to April 13, Jason and I attended the new Newport Guitar Festival in Miami Beach. We got meet plenty of readers and play a bunch of great guitars. My one complaint was that I was tied to our table much of the time so I didn’t get to check out as many of the guitars as I wanted to, but I did get to play enough to keep satisfied for the weekend. My full report is below the jump. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

The Fretboard Journal’s table was right across the aisle from Erich Solomon, so I spent a lot of time looking at his simple but elegant archtops. This experimental model had the rather grand name of Dr. Hezekiah Schmeckle’s Improved Six String Strum Box, which I also suspect is experimental. The guitar had a soundhole under the bridge and an oval top brace. Erich said he thought the top was a little thick, but I thought it sounded very nice. When he wasn’t looking I’d sneak it over to our table and play it.

I didn’t get a chance to plug in this guitar from Jonathan Plant, which would have won the festival’s Wildest Wood Contest, if there was one. I did play it unplugged, though, and it felt very nice. The model on the right is called the Buckeye Jazz and it was on the cover of the festival’s program.

The festival was fairly well-attended and there were quite a luthiers from all over the world exhibiting there. I think the award for Distance Traveled has to go to Joseph Bohmann, who apparently came back from the dead to show his wares. Actually, Henry Lowenstein, the festival’s director, owns Bohmann’s tools and a few of his guitars and was gracious enough to display them. It was fascinating to see how simple the tools were and the skill with which he used them. No CNC for that guy.

Speaking of Henry, that’s him on the left getting the hard sell from Bill Collings, who was there exhibiting a few of his archtop guitars. Actually, I think one of the guitars on Bill’s table belonged to Henry so maybe the sell wasn’t so hard after all.

And speaking of Bill Collings, we went out to dinner with him in South Beach where we were serenaded by a street musician who could have been Bill’s twin brother. So, who’s the evil one?

It wasn’t all guitars in Miami. John Monteleone showed up with a lovely Radio City mandolin along with a handful of guitars. Every time I had time to stop by the table someone was playing the guitars so I never had a chance play one myself. Oh well…

Cris Mirabella had a nice selection of his archtops on display. This model is called the Trap Door and had movable panels that you could use to cover the sound ports and one of the soundholes. I was surprised as how much you could change the sound of the guitar by opening and closing the various doors. With all of the doors closed the guitar had the sustain of a flattop while opening them brought out more of the archtops pop and punch. The only problem with the Trap Door is that I spent more time fiddling around with the doors instead of playing it.

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