Slaman Pat's Sister #1

[rpguitar]

I'm several NGDs in arears, but I owe the group a review of this Daniel Slaman "Sister #1" guitar. It is identical to the one recently built for Pat Metheny, except that mine has nickel hardware and his has gold. They were built side by side and their necks were cut from the name slab of mahogany. I can tell you that this has indeed allowed me suddenly to become as talented as Pat! It's just incredible how that works. But I digress...

The guitar is based on Daniel's DS-150 and DS-250 models, which are modern clones of the ES Gibsons with the same numbers. The Charlie Christian style pickup is custom made for Daniel, and has adjustable polepieces, which was a specific request from Pat. The back of the guitar is quilted maple, and it is flat with braces like a flat top. This is how the original ES-150 was built. The top is carved spruce, and the neck is mahogany with an ebony board. Bridge is ebony. It weighs in the 6 lb range.

The neck has a 10" radius and nice chubby frets. It is a joy to play, very full and perfectly fretted. The finish is unbelievable. It is Daniel's vintage/relic treatment that literally looks and feels like an old, lovingly worn guitar, but never ventures into the "trashed" category like some Fenders. I have several truly old guitars, and it's remarkable how realistic the Slaman finish is.

Soundwise, it has some "thunk" but with an additional acoustic/woody vibrancy thanks to the solid top. I have it strung with flats, but it is really nice with rounds as well. I may go back and forth at my whim.

Here's a brief video recorded through the direct out of my AI Clarus:

[citizenk74]

Wow! an absolutely gorgeous instrument of unique provenance; played beautifully by a gentleman, a scholar, and a

lucky son of a gun! Congratulations, RP, an continue to play long and well in good health!

[Chimera1to1]

Hey rp,

that sounds really very nice. It's a lovely looking guitar. Does the cream binding flare wider in the cutaway?

best

p

[Max405]

Very nice Roger. Nice playing too. Really showcases the sound of the guitar.
THanks for sharing..
Joe D

[oldane]

A most beautiful guitar with a most beautiful tone. I feel tempted to hop in the car and drive to The Netherlands to order one myself from Slaman.

[Frank67]

Hey Roger,

thanks so much for this wonderfully done NGD! What a great instrument this is! It is really really pretty and the sound is fantastic. The CC pickup has so much substance and clarity ... don't know, chime and depth at the same time. Everything fits just perfectly and it sounds great through your amp. That is a really really attractive design.

Enjoy it for a long time to come!
Cheers,
Frank

[iim7V7IM7]

Congrats...kudos

[Jazz_175]

Congratulations, beautiful guitar!

[Dedalus]

Gorgeous. Has a very lush sound, to my ears. I particularly like the way single note lines sound on it.

[helios]

RP,
The beautiful guitar & videos cause me to question my dogmatic love of built-in humbuckers. Jeff

[VinceMGuitar]

Wow great tone and a great demos! You really bring out the character of that instrument with both your playing as well as the recording quality.

BTW I saw Pat play his at the Detroit Jazz Fest a couple weeks ago. It's funny he only played it in his duo performance with Ron Carter and he didn't play a single one of his tunes. I wonder if that's the only way he can play it without getting slapped by Ibanez! In all of his other performances he used the Ibanez (I saw 'em all!).

[marcwhy]

Beautiful, Roger! (now you need to paint it orange!)

Marc

[rpguitar]

Thanks all for the nice comments!

@oldane, Daniel is a really nice and generous guy. I would love to visit his shop. He has three more of these Sisters in stock now I believe. There's an ebony one with contrasting rosewood parts that is gorgeous. And he's making some special new guitars, too, I think they'll be advertised soon (shh). I'm definitely a fan.

@Chimera1to1, yes the binding flares wider in the cutaway.

@VinceMGuitar - how did Pat sound on his Slaman?? Daniel and I have been stalking the internet for recordings, but there appear to be none. It's got to be odd to be a famous musician who can't play a particular instrument in public due to some contract. But he plays his Manzers all the time. Maybe they are so different from the Ibanez that it doesn't count? Hopefully we'll see it show up eventually. I really want to hear him play it.

@Helios, yes, I'm with you, I'm a humbucker person and the CC pickup really does something different and beautiful. It's not at all just for overdriving some tiny tube amp playing vintage bop lines. It's very articulate and sweet.

@marcwhy - Orange, definitely NOT.

[maggles55]

Stunning all around!! I am having a hard time with that commandment about coveting.

maggles

[VinceMGuitar]

@VinceMGuitar - how did Pat sound on his Slaman??

I feel your demo really captures the tone he got. Maybe that guitar does make you play like Pat! Sadly the festival was a zoo at all of Pat's performances so I was pretty far back so I didn't hear as well as I would have liked. It was a very quiet performance. But I felt his tone had a much more acoustic archtop vibe than usual. And much more satisfying than the tone he was getting on his Ibanez in his other performances.

The last tune they played was St Thomas - Pat really killed it on that one. It was nice to hear him in this context. The whole performance actually felt kind of like a Jim Hall tribute. They did a lot of tunes from those duo recordings.

One thing I like about the tone you are getting is that it sounds like it has kind of a combined tonal quality of both an amplified and acoustic archtop tone. Like it has the best of both worlds. To me it seemed like Pat's tone leaned more towards the acoustic archtop sound. Maybe it was how he was amplifying it, which is always a mystery because you never see any amps on stage with him.

Congratulations on that guitar. Enjoy!!

[Engine Swap]

Wow - that sounds great!!!! Quite a looker to boot!

[wintermoon]

looks and sounds pretty darn good to me RP. I'm guessing it's 17"?
interesting take on an ES-250, he combined features from 2 variations of it's short 1 year run.

picture frame inlays, w/moho neck circa late '40

early style t.p. w/cup jack circa late '39/early '40 [best jack method-why Gibson went away from that I'll never know, and could have prevented countless jack cracks on all subsequent archtops]

he also added his own touches, multi bound f holes unlike the unbound originals. ebony board vs rosewood

I've said this before, sometimes I can't understand Gibson's reissues.

if you're gonna reissue a Charlie equipped guitar, do a 250, not a 150. I really believe the model would have sold well enough to merit a reissue.

same w/the block inlay 16" L-5. why not do the cooler dot neck model?

[fws6]

Long overdue Roger ! But a great sounding instrument I hope you ll have lots of fun with that one

[rpguitar]

Maybe it was how he was amplifying it, which is always a mystery because you never see any amps on stage with him.

He puts a mic in the guitar. Shortly after he got it, he had already punched a few new holes in it (for output jacks). If you examine the treble side f-hole, there's a bracket in there on which a mic is suspended. It's a really cool sound. The combo of acoustic and electric archtop is just the shizz for me! It's what the player hears when one plays an amplified acoustic archtop, yet that mix doesn't come out of the amp, so Pat has a high tech solution for it.

@wintermoon, this is actually a 16" like Pat's other famous archtop guitars. Daniel calls it a DS-150/250 since it combines a bunch of features that never appeared together. I had admired his guitars for a long time, but the picture frame inlays, ES-250 blonde, adjustable CC pickup, and... okay, fine - association with one of my early favorite jazz guitar heroes... those things tipped the scale.

[VinceMGuitar]

He puts a mic in the guitar. Shortly after he got it, he had already punched a few new holes in it (for output jacks). If you examine the treble side f-hole, there's a bracket in there on which a mic is suspended. It's a really cool sound. The combo of acoustic and electric archtop is just the shizz for me! It's what the player hears when one plays an amplified acoustic archtop, yet that mix doesn't come out of the amp, so Pat has a high tech solution for it.

Ah - that's right - I did notice the double guitar cables coming out like in his Ibanez. It cool how he does that, but I'm not sure I prefer that tone to what you are getting. The mic'd acoustic sound takes away from the richness and "thunk" you have in your demo. Those pickups seem to preserve enough of that acoustic vibe by themselves.

[jazzbow]

Wow

[Eddie Lang]

Congrats! It looks stunning and it sounds great in your hands.

What's the nut width? How would you describe the neck?

[Jazzpunk]

Very nice, congrats!

[travisty]

Beautiful looking and sounding guitar. Love it.

I'd bet it would look just as good in my hands... ...but it wouldn't sound anywhere near as good.

Love the fullness of the low notes. Is that guitar? Pickup? Both?

[rpguitar]

Thank you Trav - I'm sure it's both, but maybe a bit more pickup in the equation? The flatwound bass strings have a deep woody thunk (sorry, overused term these days). You don't have to hit them much at all to get that sound, which is so nice.

Here's the Ebony Sister #4 - sexy thang. Love the chocolate brown rosewood against the black.