Commissioned a Custom Non-Traditional Gypsy Guitar

[iim7V7IM7]

I tuned it up and spent 30-minutes running through a medley of chord melody arrangements of jazz standards on Thursday evening. I will try to provide you with a snapshot of my initial playing impressions.

• The guitar has a strong, focused mid-range seasoned with warm overtones and excellent sustain.
• The clarity between the notes when playing pinched-pulsed jazz chords is quite remarkable. This clarity is balanced with a sweetness of euphonic overtones blooming around the tonic of each note with just the right balance.
• The guitar has a balance in volume both across the strings and up and down the neck. Walking bass lines integrate well among the chords. Something else that I liked was the B and E strings delivered "meaty" trebles in the upper registers of the fingerboard as well.
• The instrument has a fast response to attack and tremendous headroom. I suspect that it projects well but I was playing by myself so its difficult to tell for sure.
• It really does falls beautifully between a flat top and archtop in terms of its tonal timbre and slinky feel.

Unfortunately for me timing wise, I had to go off to our beach cottage this weekend and it stayed behind at home. Kudos to Bernie. I couldn't be happier!

More when I get time...

[ccroft]

I'm resurrecting this because we started talking about Bernie Lehmann in another post, and I wanted to comment but felt I shouldn't hijack the Mirabella thread further.

Just wanted to say how much I like what you guys came up with for the ornamentation. I'm a fan of the old Arts and Crafts. Tastefully conceived, beautifully executed and as far as I know quite unique in a guitar. That's the classiest take on the sound port that I know of. Bernie is a master of pierced carving, as seen in his lutes. Not to mention inlay. All those little squares are a lot harder to pull off cleanly than they look.

I also like the photography a lot. I dig that the guitar got the kind of documentation it deserves.

I hope it's still getting some playing time, what with all the other spectacular instruments you seem to have, or are about to have ( Trenier!! :)

Thanks for commissioning such a fine piece. I really appreciate that you made it happen, and I'm sure Bernie does as well.