[James Romeyn]

You think you play guitar?  Think again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp4K-DLv4oQ

[satfrat]

Nice tune, I love this type of acoustic music myself but I won't toss my guitar away after watching this video,, if I even played the guitar that is. Now I need to hunt down some Rosenburg Trio albums.


Cheers,
Robin

[James Romeyn]

Ditto, guess I won't toss mine either.

I've played some of the very finest flat tops extant, being those made by Eric Schoenberg (Tiburon CA) & Klein of Sonoma CA.  Schoenberg gained fame w/ reproductions of the Martin OMs (orchestra model) made to original specs; Klein w/ original bracing designs & incredibly large guitars that also play w/ delicate overtones.  Eric's have the magical delicacy of vintage pre-war Martin OMs; Klein makes unique guitars larger than jumbos w/ interesting off-set soundholes.  You'd expect the ultra-large Kleins would play w/ incredible volume & bass & they do in fact outplay anything I know of in that regard; incredibly & unexpectedly they have harmonic delicacy equal to anthing w/ the possible exception of the Schoenbergs.  Eric's OMs w/ rosewood back/sides start at $7k; the Kleins I played were in the $20k-$30k range. 

I stumbled upon a luthier named Ryan Thorell http://thorellguitars.com/  who appears to be in the same league w/ the above two masters.  It's remarkable that he is only age 29; even more remarkable is that he is only ten minutes from my home in Logan, Utah.  Guitar being built will be the first Thorell of similar shape/size to the R Taylor Type 1 (Taylor's so-called "Grand Symphony", one step smaller than a dreadnaught).  Sides/back will be a stunningly gorgeous set of olive wood from Zambia; every reason to believe Ryan that the olive wood will equal the performance of prized & costly Brazilian rosewood (just the upgrade alone for a set of Brazilian rosewood on an R Taylor starts at $12k).  Adirondack (red) spruce top (IIRC Ryan doesn't even bother w/ sitka spruce).

The most important thing for me is the 1-13/16" nut & 2-5/16" saddle to accomodate my fingers.  After playing guitars w/ smaller (normal) dimensions all my life & lately trying guitars w/ the above dimensions, I'd never go back.  The difference was startling.  Thanks to Eric Schoenberg for popularizing the wider nut & saddle dimensions.   

Another remarkable talent of Ryan's is that he seems equally skilled in building solid body, jazz, bass, & classical.  Most luthiers concentrate on one genre.  One of his classical guitars had forever sustain & incredible harmonic qualities.  I am generally not attracted to mahogany-side/backed flat-tops; but if I had the money I would have immediately adopted a Thorell played a few months ago.  It sang like a bird played just minutes after being strung for the first time ever. 

Someone considering the world's best guitars should consider Ryan's; they'd save multiples of the travel cost in the purchase price.  R Taylor is the most competitive of the higher-volume brands but Ryan provides better value.  (I'm thankful for having lived in CA to hear some of the best, though I'd not choose to live there again; more thankful that Logan's ultra-low cost of living is reflected in all or most things purchased here.)  A big push toward Ryan for me was that R Taylor offers only one saddle width (2-3/16); for myself the advantage of the wider saddle (2-5/16) can not be overstated.   

Ryan's lead time was about six months when I ordered; seems like a long wait till you learn the lead time for the world's top classical luthier is twelve years.
         

[CSI]

Wow! Thanks for linking to this. I've followed them for a couple of years. The interesting thing is they are playing in a style first created by Django Reinhardt (lead gypsy/jazz with rhythm guitar back up). Django goes so far back it was old school when I first heard it back in the late fifties! I think Stochelo has better chops than Django but then Django was missing the use of a couple of fingers on his left hand - which they say is the reason he developed the style in the first place.

[jazzcourier]

Great performance! Most of the Rosenberg trio recordings are done on acoustic guitar.This live performance on the amplified guitar is outstanding in that you get to hear where the instrument is now as opposed to when Django went electric in the 40's and into the early 50's.Most of the Django electric sides were poorly recorded and with distortion.He really picks up on that ringing sound.Amazing vibrato! Even more so when you see that all these Maccaferri guitars and the knock offs all use copper strings as opposed to the standard steel strings to achieve that distinctive sound,as you hear,just amazing when amplified.I have a knock off model of the Maccaferri and the copper strings are brutal on your fingers,you have to build up some serious callouses to get any projection out of that type of guitar.Reminds me of the old bass players,before everyone used amps,you would shake hands with a bass player and it was like holding onto a piece of stone.You really had to fight with your bass to be heard in the rhythm section.Imagine Jimmy Garrison playing next to Elvin Jones.You can really hear him cut through on those live Coltrane performances.He was an absolute beast on his instrument!  Lots of great Gypsy Jazz guitar on the Iris label.This is a very vital,exciting niche of both Jazz and guitar musics that have some stunning virtuosos.

[James Romeyn]

I hate it when he looks up & around at the audience, so casual, like he's on a walk in the park while cutting up the neck like there's no tomorrow.  Not fair!