1982 Linda Manzer steel string guitar available

This guitar has been with the same owner since the early eighties and living in Denmark. I have known him for even longer and the guitar has been well taken care of and is in very good shape. It has been bought up to serious playability with some work by me (I do all of Linda's restoration and repair work on her instruments as well as making my own of course) and this is a very good sounding and playing instrument as you would expect from this 'magical' vintage. Contact me for high def pictures and more information.

tonyds@pathcom.com

BANKSY INVITATION

I have a proposal for the artist known as Banksy. It would require a brief exchange of details for you to ponder, it probably isn't what you expect it would be, you can retain your anonymity and it would be a stretch for people's expectations of you that I think you would appreciate and no it isn't about decorating one of my instruments, nor robbing a bank.

Now......let's see if this can worm it's way out there..........

QUART CUTAWAY CLASSICAL GUITAR

Jacob Matheus

Nylon strung Quart Guitar in top picture about to be strung up for the first time almost a year ago now. It was built for my good friend Jacob Matheus who has been dragging it around the world ever since and putting it to very good use. This is one of my favourite guitars and I much prefer the sound of the nylon strings on this particular sized instrument. The character of the strings changes remarkably as you go up past the 12th fret but I found that to be a 'second voice' rather than any kind of issue. It is mostly the sustain that drops away and certainly not the volume! I want one of these for myself!
Materials wise, it has a red spruce top, very old beautifully quartered Honduran rosewood back and sides,  old Honduras mahogany neck, quarter sawn ebony fingerboard and rosewood bridge. Also has two way Mark Blanchard truss rod and Gotoh Stealth tuners that work great in this context.

CRAZY BUSY HERE!!!!

Hope everyone is having a stellar May out there. I know I am too busy right now and could use a rest although that seems unlikely any time soon.  I have taken down some past posts that either have bad links or of instruments already sold.
Right now I am working on a stream of Fodera basses that seem to multiplying like rabbits as well as getting tops and backs joined and roughed out for three soprano guitars and a couple of carved archtops. I'll be building a flat top soprano as a commission and a hand carved archtop version with gorgeous european maple and red spruce top. The third is a prototype with carved back, flat top and new features that cannot be mentioned..... yet!
I'll keep the blog up to date with pics..... Have a great May/June!

The Larrivettes resurface!

Here is an homage to the Larrivettes who skated by night and built guitars by day! Sure there are no skates, pads, pucks or even ice in these pictures but behind each of these steely stares lies a committed player willing to 'go the distance' no matter the foe, even when our biggest obstacle was a serious lack of talent, other than George of course who was poetry in motion!

Picture courtesy of David Wren.

Movie Art for 'DEAD MONDAY'

Used Instruments of interest available soon!!!

I have a couple of cool instruments arriving from the States soon one being a rare (1 0f 31) Martin transition tenor guitar known as the Carl Fischer model. This was a modified 2-18T with a 14 fret neck joint that was built in the months leading up to the creation of the first OM guitar. At the time these instruments were like attempts in a new direction and once the OM was established they stopped making them. It is a fantastic sounding and feeling instrument that I discovered by accident while in Dallas. I had never seen one like it (12 fret neck joints are the norm) but it was it's sound that sold me more than its scarcity. Anyone interested in Tenor guitars and in my neck of the woods, should try it. It's a dream.

The other guitar is a 1959 Gibson LG-3 in excellent shape and is one of the very good ones. I get to play lots of these and they can be small sounding or big. This is the latter and I'm sure it will end up in the right hands very soon.