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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.
April 22nd, 2008
I pass by this sign almost every day and today I happened to have a camera with me. The building it’s on is in Palo Alto and it used to be a gallery that sold Jerry Garcia’s artwork. The gallery went out of business a few months ago and, as you can see, the space is being turned into a day spa/nail salon. As many of you know, Garcia was missing the middle finger on his right hand, hence his unusual handprint logo. So, I was wondering if he had gone into a nail salon, would he have to pay full price for manicure?-MJS
March 21st, 2008
We are saddened to learn that Willie P. Bennett passed away on February 15. To most of us in the States, Bennett was known as the hilarious slide-mandolin, harmonica-toting sidekick to singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith. But up in the Great White North, Bennett had his own lengthy career as a singer-songwriter. He even won a Juno award in 1999 for his album Heartstrings. The gear page on his site still lists his unique setup in Eaglesmith’s band: a 1991 Flatiron mandolin, a bevy of distortion pedals, a 5/8″ spark plug socket for his slide and a Fender Princeton Reverb.
February 18th, 2008
We were already on Myspace, but now we’ve created a Facebook
page for the Fretboard Journal. (Even we have to keep up with the times, right?) Come say hello, chat with us for a bit, pass it along to friends, etc. -JV
February 13th, 2008
Here’s an article about a ring of smugglers busted for bringing tortoise shell picks and violin bow parts into the US from China. Even though the shell used for these items comes from a hawksbill sea turtle, they’re known as tortoise shell. I wonder why that is? -MJS
January 17th, 2008
I posted here about a $12,900 ring that looked like a turntable a while ago. Now it looks like an Austrailian designer named Nathan Thomas has come out with a much less expensive version. Thomas’ Turntable Ring only costs $350 Australian and features a real vinyl disc and a moving tone arm.-MJS
January 7th, 2008
In 2006, workers in the Cathedral in Valencia, Spain, discovered frescos painted in the 1560s by Francesco Pagano that were hidden for the last 550 years. The rediscovered paintings included images of angels playing various musical instruments including viola da gamba, vihuela and zither. In an inspired decision, the Cathedral’s caretakers decided to honor the painting’s rediscovery by having modern luthiers recreate the instruments in the painting. This page from Dimitris Rapakousios features photos of the oud he made based on the image to the left and a video clip of a concert using all the new instruments.-MJS
January 2nd, 2008
Happy 2008! Well, this is my first post of the year and I wanted to make it special. So, without further ado, here’s an article about Robert Plant’s facial hair being named the Beard of the Year. With that out of the way, the rest of the year’s posts can only get better.-MJS
January 2nd, 2008
Or, rather it would be if it wasn’t sold out and I could buy one. This great Threadless shirt is entitled Music Snob and it was designed by Spencer Fruhling. It features a bunch of ultra-rare, and possibly imaginary musical genres like Alt Mambo, Garage Opera and Skate Folk. It looks like that if enough people request it, they’ll reprint it. If that happens, maybe I can buy one and have it be my favorite t-shirt of 2008. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) -MJS
December 17th, 2007
The Onion’s AV Club lists the Worst Band Names of 2007.-MJS
December 17th, 2007
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