The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    carlo greco...what an obscure legend...worked for/with them all...old nyc...

    he had his place above/next to rudys for years too, on 48th


    great days




    cheers
    Great shot NE!
    It was like walking into a different world back then. I didn't know the accordion was big in Dominican music (Meringue Typico) back then, and Alex Accordions was loaded with kids playing the accordions.
    I was referred by a friend who went to Carlo for years, and told me he was Kenny Burrell's repairman. He also was the man responsible for the Guild JS Model. Later on, Carlo started losing it, and effed up a fret job on my friend's D'A that had him crying and losing sleep. He finally took it to Flip Scipio, and he straightened it out for him.

    I let Carlo have my D'A for however long it took to make it as good as possible, and told him to do whatever he wanted with it.Carlo made me play my D'A before he'd take the job, and told me I played very well, and he'd be glad to do the job. He told me not to call him, and six months later he called me and told me it was done.
    He did a lot of things to it; new frets, repaired cracks, fixed the tuners, gave it a lacquer job, put on some old D'A fret markers that he had laying around in his shop for years,and the binding, all for $500. It looked incredible.
    The fret job was okay, but I got Roger Borys to work on it a bit. Roger loves that guitar, and insisted on making a real D'A bridge of his own, which was much better than the stock bridge my father had an LI shop put on it. He also put a new pickguard on it, modeled after a picture of my father playing it in a band picture from the late 30's.

    Carlo wanted to buy the D'A from me and offered to trade it for one of his own guitars, but I told him I wasn't interested.
    I went downstairs and showed it to Rudy, and he wanted to buy it also, and offered to trade a Gibson Pat Martino solid body L-5 for it. I wasn't interested.

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  3. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgcim
    “He told me not to call him, and six months later he called me and told me it was done.”
    He did a lot of things to it; new frets, repaired cracks, fixed the tuners, gave it a lacquer job, put on some old D'A fret markers that he had laying around in his shop for years,and the binding, all for $500. It looked incredible.
    The fret job was okay, but I got Roger Borys to work on it a bit.”.
    What was it with those guys?
    Don’t call me? And then 6 months later he told you it was done?
    And the frets had to be fixed by Roger Borys?
    Wow. Next time I see my Brian I am gonna hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. He tells you “my backlog is 3 weeks. In 3 weeks I call you. You bring the guitar the day after.“ You come back 3 days after that to pick up the guitar.
    That’s the way you do business. “Don’t call me”? Oh boy...

  4. #28

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    carlo greco had some real nyc street cred...he was a mover with guild guitars for years, before opening his own shop...and it sounds like s' D'A needed lots of work...different times yes...but much the same as waiting for a mr. campellone guitar for a year...these luthiers are in an exalted position...earned by years of dedication & known good work...

    younger guys working for other people have to work at a different speed

    good to have both options!!

    guitar repairs can take awhile...even a simple set up needs some time while things settle...the quick fix is not necessarily the best fix

    cheers

  5. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    carlo greco had some real nyc street cred...he was a mover with guild guitars for years, before opening his own shop...and it sounds like s' D'A needed lots of work...different times yes...but much the same as waiting for a mr. campellone guitar for a year...these luthiers are in an exalted position...earned by years of dedication & known good work...

    younger guys working for other people have to work at a different speed

    good to have both options!!

    guitar repairs can take awhile...even a simple set up needs some time while things settle...the quick fix is not necessarily the best fix

    cheers
    I had a Guild Artist Award made by Carlo Greco (that guitar is now owned by a fellow forum member) that was superb.

    That picture of 48th street brings back memories for sure. I lived in NYC from 1969-1978. The City was very cool in those days........

  6. #30

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    SS, Very cool.. Right down the street from there, I was playing Feels So Good on a 335 at a Music store and I looked up and Grant Geissman was standing right in front of me! He said, hey man that was very close. I almost fainted. I asked him what Phaser he used. He told me it was the black MXR. I bought it and still have it!
    JD

  7. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by QAman
    Mark,
    Hope the surgery went well and that your feeling ok. Nice restoration on this guitar.
    I’ve seen many binding blow outs that discolored guitars just like this one. It’s not as noticeable if the guitar was originally a burst.
    So, is this a clients guitar or your own?
    Hi Steve - surgery went well, thanks - ending up losing only about a week of work, so not too bad for recovery. This guitar belongs to a local player who had ordered it from Jimmy years ago - guess at some point he wasn't playing it anymore and stored it for years in his attic - easy to imagine how seasonal environmental changes in a New England attic led to the guitar's demise -

  8. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by Max405
    What was it with those guys?
    Don’t call me? And then 6 months later he told you it was done?
    And the frets had to be fixed by Roger Borys?
    Wow. Next time I see my Brian I am gonna hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. He tells you “my backlog is 3 weeks. In 3 weeks I call you. You bring the guitar the day after.“ You come back 3 days after that to pick up the guitar.
    That’s the way you do business. “Don’t call me”? Oh boy...
    Yeah, Greco was getting old, and was not the man he used to be. He totally screwed up the fret job on my friend's D'A, which was made especially for him, and one of the last ones John made, was the only D'A I know of that had classical guitar string spacing. My friend was a pretty heavy dude, who had spent some time on the road with Buddy Rich, and played on an album with Kenny Burrell and Vinnie Burke, was completely destroyed by the botched fret job, which made the guitar practically unplayable.
    Flip Scipio had to pull all the frets out, and do it all over again.
    Roger said Greco had done the other work okay on my D'A, but he did have to do some fret filing on it.

  9. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by MCampellone
    Hi Steve - surgery went well, thanks - ending up losing only about a week of work, so not too bad for recovery. This guitar belongs to a local player who had ordered it from Jimmy years ago - guess at some point he wasn't playing it anymore and stored it for years in his attic - easy to imagine how seasonal environmental changes in a New England attic led to the guitar's demise -
    Mark- glad to hear surgery went well and recovery not too bad. You did a beautiful job on the restoration. Your client should be very happy with the outcome.

  10. #34

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    it's amazing that D'Aquisto didn't completely fall apart being left in an attic during the summer

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by Max405
    What was it with those guys?
    Don’t call me? And then 6 months later he told you it was done?
    And the frets had to be fixed by Roger Borys?
    Wow. Next time I see my Brian I am gonna hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. He tells you “my backlog is 3 weeks. In 3 weeks I call you. You bring the guitar the day after.“ You come back 3 days after that to pick up the guitar.
    That’s the way you do business. “Don’t call me”? Oh boy...
    That binding work, alone, can take a long time. I'm shocked the guitar was ready in 6 months. I know of a local D'Aquisto restoration that required new binding, as well as an assortment of other work, that took more than 2 years. The luthier was more than competent, and the guitar was one of Joe V's guitars. That guitar has been talked about here more than once. I wish I still had photos of that repair, for the end result was nothing less than stunning. It's the only D'Aquisto I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. They don't often appear in this neck of the woods.

  12. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintermoon
    it's amazing that D'Aquisto didn't completely fall apart being left in an attic during the summer
    The DAQ actually did develop other issues in addition to the binding rot - a crack in the top and some seam separations - I'm guessing the owner may have at least de-tuned the guitar - otherwise, yeah, it might have just exploded -

  13. #37

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    Quote Originally Posted by MCampellone
    The DAQ actually did develop other issues in addition to the binding rot - a crack in the top and some seam separations - I'm guessing the owner may have at least de-tuned the guitar - otherwise, yeah, it might have just exploded -
    Exploded, that was the first word that came to mind when you said it was in an attic.
    Nice job Mark. btw, did you consider tinting the binding or just let it age naturally?

  14. #38

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    attic type environment is killer....on woods, glues. plastics/binding..everything...extended periods of heat and low humidity is a guitar killer...why cactus and joshua trees can exist in the desert...not spruce!!!

    wood, 50's plastics and everything else will shrink under those horrific conditions...great that the maestro Jimmy D's guitar could be rescued (a testament to his build!)...i'm sure he is smiling down with gratitude on mr. campellones efforts...

    and so happy to hear of your strong post surgery recovery!!

    cheers

  15. #39

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    Quote Originally Posted by deacon Mark
    Restoring guitar much different animal than making one. Probably harder at least at this level of guitar.

    When you make your own guitar you have all the jigs and forms. When you deal with another you have to make and invent new jigs and forms. A real art Mark is a master craftsmen, he does it all.

    Think if building a house vs remodeling and old. Much easier to just start with nothing in the way.

    Mark I hope your knee came through ok. Do what the dr says, and be good to yourself. Knees more important than guitars.
    Hi Mark - thanks for the well wishes - and you're right about building vs repair/restoration - the house analogy is a good one -

  16. #40

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    attic type environment is killer....on woods, glues. plastics/binding..everything...extended periods of heat and low humidity is a guitar killer...why cactus and joshua trees can exist in the desert...not spruce!!!

    wood, 50's plastics and everything else will shrink under those horrific conditions...great that the maestro Jimmy D's guitar could be rescued (a testament to his build!)...i'm sure he is smiling down with gratitude on mr. campellones efforts...

    and so happy to hear of your strong post surgery recovery!!

    cheers
    appreciate the well wishes - not quite "strong" yet, but I'll get there eventually : )

  17. #41

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    Quote Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
    That celluloid is nasty stuff. I believe Mark told me he uses ABS plastic binding.
    I never had any binding problems in my life with Gibson’s. I wonder why that is ? I have had binding issues with old Guilds. I know a lot of DA’s in the 50’s and DAQ’s in the 80’s had binding issues.
    Is this a batch thing like pickguards ?
    Still wonder why Gibson binding rarely fails.
    Not sure if Gibson ever used celluloid for binding material - I've heard of them using (in recent times) a plastic called "boltaron" which is a PVC/acrylic alloy - a buddy of mine who years ago used to work at Guild told me that they were using ABS, which led me to use it.

  18. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintermoon
    Exploded, that was the first word that came to mind when you said it was in an attic.
    Nice job Mark. btw, did you consider tinting the binding or just let it age naturally?
    The thought of tinting the binding to simulate aging did occur to me, but the customer didn't request it so I just left it white.