Mirabella Fabio Mittino Model

[mrwoland]

Dear All,

I’d like to share this video in which I play Notturno – Cielo Stellato, Op. 186 by Raffaele Calace, on my new Signature Archtop Guitar, beautifully crafted by Cris Mirabella.
For this piece, the guitar is tuned in CGADEG and fitted with Galli AJF 1260 strings.
The performance was filmed inside the Church of Santa Maria alla Fontana in Milan.
Hope you'll like it.

I’m incredibly honored to have a signature instrument built by the amazing Cris Mirabella.
This guitar is the result of years of work and fine-tuning.
My goal was to blend the low-end clarity of an oval-hole with the warm, rounded upper register I associate with a classical guitar.
Cris achieved that balance by using a slightly shallower body (3") paired with a larger upper bout, giving the instrument enough air volume for a strong low C without losing sweetness on top.
He also drew inspiration from Al Valenti’s modified D’Angelico, managing to make the guitar responsive enough to be played as a classical instrument if needed, while keeping projection and character intact.
The woods come from Jimmy D’Aquisto’s personal stock, which makes this build even more special.
For the finish, I wanted something inspired by the Art Deco aesthetic of the Gibson L5 “Jazz Moderne” made by Bruce Kunkel in 2000, but more understated, so I suggested a metallic-black / glossy-black look, where the rays appear only under certain light in order to keep the instrument elegant and subtle.
Owning an instrument like this feels like a real privilege and also a responsibility.
I’ll do my best to play it to the best of my abilities and hopefully be worthy of it.

[rrbasic]

Beautiful! Absolute pleasure. Thank you.

[kris]

Great playing!!!

[Gitterbug]

Bravo bravissimo: La musica, il musicista, la chitarra, l'ambiente stupenda. Solo in Italia...

[Stringswinger]

That guitar is most certainly in the right hands!

[Bill C]

Fabulous playing - thank you! The guitar is a work of art.

[QAman]

Remarkable contrapuntal movement - thanks for sharing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cunamara]

Beautiful music in a beautiful setting, beautifully played and on a beautiful instrument. Congratulations, Fabio, this is wonderful!

And to think that your guitar, being new and sounding this good now, is only going to sound even richer and fuller over the next decade.

[2bornot2bop]

Fabio, that was a joy to experience! Bravo, bravo!

Congratulations on your acquisition of such a beautiful instrument!

And a tip of the hat to the video editor or production crew!

[SOLR]

Amazing, except: this looks/sounds dubbed

Maybe you've done a montage to show the venue or whatever, but it's strange.

Certainly great playing and a great looking instrument.

S

[Mick-7]

A fine instrument but all that effort seems wasted if you're going to put nylon strings on it, a good classical guitar would do.

[Cunamara]

A fine instrument but all that effort seems wasted if you're going to put nylon strings on it, a good classical guitar would do.

Hmm? Flatwound bronzewound steel strings:

Flat wound : AJF1260 MEDIUM

[Cunamara]

Amazing, except: this looks/sounds dubbed

Maybe you've done a montage to show the venue or whatever, but it's strange.

It does not appear dubbed to me. There may be a very subtle sync issue between the video and soundtrack. However, you do have to keep in mind that Fabio does not play in standard tuning but uses Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning (CGDAEG). As a result, his left hand movements look different from what we are used to seeing with Spanish tuning.

[SOLR]

It does not appear dubbed to me. There may be a very subtle sync issue between the video and soundtrack. However, you do have to keep in mind that Fabio does not play in standard tuning but uses Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning (CGDAEG). As a result, his left hand movements look different from what we are used to seeing with Spanish tuning.

It's a confirmed (on his YT post) dubbed version , pre recorded in his studio ( seems to have been recorded in segments) ....Of course it does not diminish the musicianship or the quality of the recording.

S

[Cunamara]

Well, his post said those were the strings used...

"For this piece, the guitar is tuned in CGADEG and fitted with Galli AJF 1260 strings." I assume Fabio knows what strings he uses.

[Mick-7]

Hmm? Flatwound bronzewound steel strings:

Flat wound : AJF1260 MEDIUM

Oops! I skimmed over his post, and I've never seen bronze strings that look like that. They are an uncommonly light gauge, to allow for the unusual tuning I suppose.

[Cunamara]

You're right, they look different than other bronze wound steel strings that I have seen. I don't know if Fabio has changed the gauges or is using the stock .012-.060 gauges; reading around online about this tuning, it looks like the recommendation is for a very heavy low string (0.56 or thicker) and a very light top string (0.09 or 0.10) to get the low note without floppiness and the high note without breakage.

I have not taken the plunge on trying this tuning out although I do find it intriguing to think about. I haven't heard many or perhaps any examples of someone playing, for example, chord melody jazz standards on it. On his solo acoustic works, Fabio seems to tend to play classical pieces; he does have a series of recordings that are, shall we say, quite different from those on electric guitar ("Music for Difficult People" or something like that).

[Mick-7]

You're right, they look different than other bronze wound steel strings that I have seen. I don't know if Fabio has changed the gauges or is using the stock .012-.060 gauges; reading around online about this tuning, it looks like the recommendation is for a very heavy low string (0.56 or thicker) and a very light top string (0.09 or 0.10) to get the low note without floppiness and the high note without breakage.

I have not taken the plunge on trying this tuning out although I do find it intriguing to think about. I haven't heard many or perhaps any examples of someone playing, for example, chord melody jazz standards on it. On his solo acoustic works, Fabio seems to tend to play classical pieces; he does have a series of recordings that are, shall we say, quite different from those on electric guitar ("Music for Difficult People" or something like that).

I don't see how he could put 12-14 gauge on the top two strings, one review of this tuning said that string gauges lighter than that would snap when he tried to put them on. The .12 might work on the 2nd (usually B) string, but as you said, you'll need a .09 or .10 on the 1st string. Apparently cello players feel right at home with this tuning because cellos are tuned C-G-D-A.