bayoubengal1954
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Posts posted by bayoubengal1954
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3 minutes ago, tpbiii said:
Here are the demos I sent Patrick. The first one is quite short -- a rhythm comparison with some serious competition. Guitar 1 -- 1935 Martin D-18 -- Guitar 2 -- 1940 Gibson J-55 RW
These next two are quite long -- but you can skip around. Rhythm -- flatpick - fingerpicks -- bare fingers
Let's pick,-TomLThanks, Tom! I didn’t want to share those without your permission!
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Almost everyone knows Tom Barnwell (tpbiii on this Forum) for his wonderful collection of Vintage Guitars as well his gracious sharing of cool videos and his knowledge.Well I got to meet Tom last weekend! Here are the circumstances.This is a bit long, but I hope you like the story.Tom has earlier posted photos on this Forum of some Frankentars built by his friend John Farley, a well renown flat picker in the Atlanta area. I was so knocked out by the tones of them that I contacted Tom and asked if he wouldn’t mind contacting John to see if he had anything lying around or was working on any projects. As luck would have it, John had two finished guitars that he would be willing to sell.Then Tom offered to do something way beyond the call of duty. He offered to pick up the guitars and make some videos at his place for me to check out to see if I was interested in them. Care was taken in doing this due to the Virus, and of course I wanted Tom to feel comfortable at all times.Well he sent me the demo videos, I quickly called John Farley, we made a deal and plans were made for me to drive over from New Orleans to pick them up at his house a few miles north of Atlanta. This past Saturday I arrived. Tom showed up, as well a friend of theirs named Mark who also builds guitars and is a great banjo player as well. John’s lovely wife Debbie was there. We all were masked up and practiced Social Distancing.Now the photos...This one is a Mahogany B/S Sitka Spruce Top D. John’s recollection is that the Mahogany was from a D-18 from the 60’s. The Spruce Top, we are not sure of the origin, but it’s been roughed up a bit. John worked his magic on the insides. He had no neck, so he ended buying a ‘30’s Gibson L-30 just for the neck to use on this project! He had to use some shims because the 24.75” scale length had to be adjusted to the Martin standard of 24.9”.https://imgur.com/AXKhnWkNext up is the Rosewood D. The Spruce Top came from a ‘67 Martin D (not sure if it was an 18 or 28, but it doesn’t matter). I believe John added the Herringbone. John then bought some East Indian Rosewood directly from Martin, he believes sometime in the 90’s. You could do that then without being a Certified Martin Repair Person. He believes the neck was from a Martin that had some Mother of Pearl that he didn’t like and he stripped it away and refinished the entire neck. Not sure of the year of the neck.
Both guitars sound fantastic, dry, resonant and very articulate. They are extremely light in weight like Vintages would be.Here is John with the Mahogany. He only took his mask off for the photo.
Here is Tom, the man who put this all together.
Here is Mark, a great banjo picker and guitar maker.
Here is John’s wife Betty. She removed her mask for the photo.
I ended up staying nearly two hours hearing some great stories from everyone before heading back for the long, but happy drive home to New Orleans with these two guitars in tow.What a great day to spend in the midst of all of these challenges. I met three wonderful people and acquired two great sounding unique guitars.I never would have met these cool people if it weren’t for this Forum!I should be able to post a demo video comparing the two by the end of the week. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!-
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1 hour ago, TomG76 said:
Careful - I WILL be back!
Cool! Here is hoping that sometime in 2021 we’ll have an all clear. 🎼
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46 minutes ago, TomG76 said:
Thank you! Just out of shot is the logo on my baseball cap...which is for Cafe Du Monde! I was in New Orleans in December.
Cool! If I would have known you then I could have brought you up to play a couple of songs at one of my gigs. 👍
Play on!
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Y’all (you and the guitar) sounded great! 🤘🤪🤘
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1 hour ago, zombywoof said:
Everything we have heard about Dale's abilities has been the Gospel.
By the way how is New Orleans doing. That was my home away from home for many years when I worked for the National Park Service. I was working out of Natchez, MS but they loaned me out to New Orleans Jazz to help deal with historic preservation issues surrounding the rehabilitation of Louis Armstrong Park and Preservation Hall whatever number it was. I also spent a ton of time up in Natchitoches helping getting it up and running. I truly do miss those days.
Wow, cool history with New Orleans! It’s rough down here with the Virus, but I know that’s true everywhere. The only shows I can or want to do are outdoors and it can a BIT hot down here. 😉
Enjoy that guitar, Buddy!!
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Yes!!!!!!!!!!
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Great job, Sal! Glad to have you back! Your arrangement had a Pettyesque vibe to it, to my ears. 🤘😜🤘
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Very cool! Congratulations!
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13 minutes ago, zombywoof said:
Mahogany - but t ain't a Gibson (Burn the Witch they cried) so not officially a Stage Deluxe
Sending you a Private Message on this.
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5 minutes ago, zombywoof said:
I do not know what SD or RG means.
Stage Deluxe (Mahogany) and Radio Grande (Rosewood). 👍
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38 minutes ago, zombywoof said:
I bought a Smeck but not the Centennial. This is the first time I have ever bought something like this I had not held in my sweaty little hands before plunking my hard earned scratch down so I am now going through the whole second guessing whether I made the right call or not thing.
Whoa! What year? Details please! Let us know when it arrives!
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1 hour ago, tpbiii said:
Acquiring old extraordinary sounding guitars (and other string instruments) was a near lifetime focus of by late wife and I. As an acoustic scientist, I am about as focused on sound as possible -- what my Daddy use to call a "bus man's holiday."
For me, the overwhelming focus was/is sound. Times have changed -- in the old days when I searched the county for old excellent sounding guitars, you could go into almost any small shop in America and find maybe 10-20 vintage guitars -- I am talking 1970-2000. If you did this all year -- I traveled a fair amount for work -- you might find one or two that qualified. That does not work anymore.
Since we were using vintage instruments as a retirement investment, I had also to be focused on the (often fast changing) market.
I identified five classed of instruments from an investment point of view:
1. Collectable
2 Players
3. Junque
4. Frankentars
5. Modern
These are separate markets, and you need to understand each market. The thing that they have in common is they each may included extraordinary sounding instruments -- but their individual value in general were not (solely) based on their sound. The sound set the desirability -- the market set the price.
Classes 1, 2, and 5 are widely discussed -- the 1936 J-35 I have been demoing on the forum is clearly a class 1; the 1935 Jumbo is a class 2.
But I also have great love for class 3 and 4 instruments -- obviously junque should require less $$ and my late wife and I decorated our life with them.
But if you seek extraordinary sounding pseudo vintage instruments, class 4 can be amazing -- a chance to sometimes achieve vintage sound, tone, and power at much lower costs. although the "market" is generally unlike the rest of the markets.
A Frankentar is an instrument assembled from old parts -- in many cases vintage parts. In the South, there is a strong tradition of shade-tree luthiers -- similar in some way to the shade-tree mechanics who use to run moonshine and invented NASCAR. Many of them are excellent and some of those that were available to me have since become world famous -- Jay Rhyne, Randy Wood, John Arnold, Wayne Henderson, .... But there is a local guy -- an iconic early flatpicker named John Farley -- who came off the road in maybe 1970 and has since "created" hundreds of some of the best sounding guitars I have ever heard! He has NO INTEREST in cosmetics -- only sound and playability. He has put many extraordinary instruments in the hand of young players who would otherwise never have a chance to own anything that good. If I had never been able to acquire any class 1, 2, 3 or 5 instruments, I could still own extraordinary sound and playability.
Here are a couple of examples. Here is my Beltone
This guitar has "wintered" sometimes on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, and it is fair to say it is pretty famous: hot pickers gather to play it; it has been played on many shows; it has been used on several CDs; and it has gone on tour to the US and Canada. It is a John Farley creation. It is such a kick to play it in a session with good pickers as they realized that there is some extraordinary -- and unknown -- in their presence.
Here are some videos.
Yea, the other guitar is the 36 AJ.Here is another -- this one was given to my daughter's band mate Kelly Moore when she was a poor, poor student.
Here she is playing in an early practice session with my daughter for their duo, DEAD GIRL SONGS.
If you miss these kinds of stories, IMO you are missing something important.
Maybe we should have a Frankentar thread.
Let's pick,
-Tom
Maybe we should have a Frankentar thread.
Let's pick,
-Tom
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That would be fun, Tom!
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1 hour ago, zombywoof said:
That is where I am headed. One of the top contenders for me is a Collings CJ35. Based on a late-1930s Gibson J35 loaned to them by Mass Street Music while not a spot on copy it has the non-scalloped bracing and three tone bars. It helps that they are factory built guitars so do not carry the heftier price tag of others. Plus, I am looking at used guitars anyway.
Oddly the repair shop I use also builds a small number of acoustics and offers versions of the AJ and L-00. They base them on originals which had come into the shop for extensive repairs allowing them to measure and document every part. Only problem I have with them is not only are the expensive but they tend to bling them out with more abalone that I am comfortable with (my comfort level when it comes to abalone is none)
P.S. Thanks for the Crooked Star recommendation. Their version of the Bacon & Day Senorita made just my jaw drop.
That Collings will be a Monster!
I am lucky enough to have a Crooked Star Senorita that I bought used with Maple B/S. The CS line is much less blingy with open pore finishes (new they are about 2.5K) than the regular NE line (those go for about 5K brand new). Tony has only built 14 of the CS line as he has to fit them into his schedule. The main priority is the regular NE line.
Let us know if you get the Collings!
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On 6/23/2020 at 10:24 AM, zombywoof said:
No real point to this thread. Just thinking out loud. But I am definitely experiencing a weird scenes inside the goldmine moment. It actually started when I snagged the L3. Yes, it has a sound all its own and is drop dead gorgeous. But what I have started to wonder is was this a guitar I really liked the "idea" of (if that makes any sense) more than anything else. As a starting point, I ain't a collector. I started buying what were then just "used" guitars because they were cheaper than new ones. And making it tougher is folks know me and it has actually become easier for me to acquire old guitars as I get a steady stream of them being offered. Now this does not mean my '42 J50 is going anywhere. In this case I have not played any J45/50 old or new in decades I liked the sound and feel of better. Nor does it mean I am swearing off older guitars. That door will always remain ajar. Just starting to rethink things. And what is driving me is I cannot rationalize keeping as many guitars around as I do. So if something new is to enter my life I really want something old to move over and make room. Anyway, at the moment topping the list of newish guitars I am seriously interested in are the Gibson Stage Deluxe and Collings CJ35 (particularly the opaque yellow version) which remans about as close as you are going to get to a later-1930s Gibson J35. And there is still a certain Huss & Dalton I played a year or two back which continues to haunt me. Hell, maybe this is all just me getting old.
I hear ya. I had a great time with my one Vintage Project: the Frankenstein ‘38 L-00 Neck/‘48 J-50 Body. The money spent could never be recovered in a sale, but I love the tone and probably play it the most.
Having said that, I have recently been getting a lot of joy out of buying used newer guitars based on old models (Larson Brothers and Bacon and Day inspired) built by Tony Klassen (his less expensive Crooked Star Line from New Era Guitars).
I also have a Jubal built by the late Aaron Cowles which is based on his old ‘34 Original Jumbo that sounds great.
Of course there is no substitute for old wood, but some modern builders are doing some great work at getting a very authentic tone, at least to my ears.
Now if someone wants to give me a Roy Smeck already converted with no work needed, that would be okay. 😉
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Very cool, Tom. Thanks for putting this together!
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That was fun. Thanks for posting.
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If you’re so inclined to view, I have put up a video playing my Frankenstein Gibson ‘38 L-00 Neck/‘48 J-50 Body.
Wishing everyone the best during these Challenging Times.
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On 5/30/2020 at 3:45 AM, 62burst said:
Well, how 'bout that. Bold move, Gibson Acoustic.
More into the standard sunburst, but would be very interested to play one of these. Although the short scale is part of the endearing nature of the J-45, for those who are looking for a cleaner bass note, or loudness, on paper, this long-scale Epiphone might fit the bill.
In times when many are offering less, Gibson does this. +1. Now, if they could just get cracking on a Bozeman made. . .
Martelle DeLuxe 12 fret-
This young fellow out of Chattanooga, Tennessee named Isaac Stroupe builds his take on the Martelle Deluxe. He just sold this one recently. His company is called Minerva Fretworks. -
Great job, Sal!
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Great job, Buc! You really made the song your own. Nice picking on the run up to the Chorus. 👍
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That’s really cool. I like the style, and the green background is a good choice!
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I do these to keep some semblance of sanity.
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2 hours ago, Murph said:
Cheer up Cajun !
You're just mad cause you can't run over to Crawfish Town and eat.
Is boudin considered essential? It should!
Well done. I'm of the belief this is all going to work itself out soon.
Murph, fortunately crawfish is still available to go! And boudin ain’t never going away. 😉
Great Meet Up With Tom Barnwell and John Farley Some Gibson Content (By a Neck)
in Gibson Acoustic
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Tom, please thank Debbie for taking that photo. And, Tom I cannot thank you enough for being the facilitator for what turned out to be a very rich experience. To meet all of you on Saturday and to be able to be a caretaker of John’s instruments is one of the biggest joys of my life (this is not an exaggeration) .
I’m glad we got to jam a bit. Tom played some cool harmonica licks on a couple of songs I played when I was demoing the guitars, and John backed up Debbie and Mark as they sang “Wayfaring Stranger” (and I backed John softly). And Tom is much too modest regarding his guitar playing ability. I do wish we could have done more, but we were smart not to push things.
One day we will get together again and I will bring John’s instruments, but until then I will cherish the memories of that day.