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Post by jonnymosco on May 26, 2017 21:50:35 GMT
Well, a big surprise to me - Mrs Mosco just gave me a guitar for my birthday... and it's not even my birthday. She wanted to hide it, but couldn't find anywhere in our house, apart from our daughter's bed! It's a classical by Christopher Dean (not Christopher Dean of Torvill and Dean thankfully: deanguitars.co.uk/about-maker).
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Riverman
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Post by Riverman on May 26, 2017 21:58:07 GMT
Wow. Just wow
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Martin
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Post by Martin on May 26, 2017 22:33:33 GMT
Looks wonderful. You didn't know anything about it? Kudos to Helen
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on May 26, 2017 23:29:55 GMT
What a fab surprise - lucky boy! Congrats!
Helen is a wonderful woman!!
Looks like a gorgeous instrument, but we do need to hear it asap!
Keith
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francis
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Post by francis on May 27, 2017 3:29:09 GMT
Echo Keith on this - superb
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Post by K Tresp on May 27, 2017 6:28:24 GMT
Congratulations Jonny, a great new addition. Looks great but others have asked the all important question - how does it sound?
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Post by jonnymosco on May 27, 2017 8:38:37 GMT
Thanks everyone. Martin, I'd fallen in love with the guitar a long time ago when Chris Dean had asked me to try it at his workshop. (Mrs Mosco was a bit worried that I was visiting somebody called Christine a lot!). It's a prototype. He offered it to me, but I said it wasn't the right time... but then Mrs Mosco stepped in planning to give it to me for my birthday and then surprised me by giving it to me early. K Tresp it sounds quite wonderful. Mrs Mosco (and CD) knew I'd like a guitar to contrast with my double topped, all singing, all dancing, modern sounding guitar: a sweet and Spanish sounding guitar. It is definitely a contrast and of the Spanish school... but with a huge sound and so balanced, it's unbelievable and really inspirational to play! I came across this very thorough description of one of his guitars and pretty much sums up mine: From the very first note this guitar has a great impact, immediately easy to play with compelling, full bodied notes and a real sense of energy and substance.
The treble has a ‘glossy’ character with colours ranging from very deep reds to zesty oranges, in other words a sound with fantastic clarity and balance for brightness and punch combined with intensity, breadth and support for warmth and a more velvet sound.
The bass is simply everything that you would wish for, with wonderful depth and drive produced by direct and focused tone – overall both engaging and exhilarating!
When playing Milonga I loved the clarity and detail within the arpeggios that helped to highlight the clashing harmonies, syncopation and musical expression. The full and rounded brilliance of the treble was much in evidence and choosing lines and individual notes to bring forward seemed effortless.
She really has masses of sound to project, put your foot on the pedal and she keeps giving, even at this early stage.
In Bach’s Cello Suite no.1 I had all the control necessary for the detail and delicacy that I require and so achieved a lovely light and flowing tone, balanced and even notes across the strings and easy shaping of the long phrases and multiple lines. I could hear the treble voice ‘filling’ as I played, building resonance, sustain and support and clearly demonstrating it’s huge potential.
Lough Caragh by Gary Ryan is a beautiful and atmospheric piece of music and so an excellent test for a guitar! This guitar rose to the challenge giving me rich, smooth and velvet bass notes, a voice for the listener to get lost in, and a graceful and engaging treble sound that easily maintained quality and emotional response as the music moved around the fingerboard.
It was easy to clearly project the voices through the ‘campanella’ resonance showing me that the sound has a true essence and the lovely combination of focused sound and a warm, rich overall voice.
The first word that I used in the description of this guitar was impact. By this I meant the presence and impression of her sound being unavoidable. She is an emotional and musical guitar and so far I have used that sort of music to review the sound so I wanted to finish with the outgoing side to her character.
Fantasie on Themes from La Traviata by Tarrega is a fantastic piece that leaps from one emotion to the next, rich to sparkling, charming to thrilling, vivid and ‘showy’ to wistful and reflective. Through this guitar I managed all of this with ease. The trebles can be vivid and brilliant with plenty of attack with one stroke and then immediate soft and gentle with a creamy full voice. The bass is wonderful especially with the D tuning and gave me drive and punch one minute and body and sonority the next. Great fun!
In reading this review back I have realized that I could sum things up pretty quickly.
She has a big and beautiful voice that is emotional and overall colourful, giving you the chance to express all of your musical emotions with all the control and support that you need.One of the best guitar descriptions I've read... 'zesty oranges'? Anyway, as for most classical guitars, not that exciting on the surface, with all the magic under the bonnet. I'm always amazed at how, with such a simple Torres fan bracing (and ignoring the double tops), classical guitars can sound so completely different. It is very light and French Polished. The top is spruce, pretty sure German, and in three pieces (the prototype element). Back and sides: Indian Rosewood. The tuners are gorgeous Schellers (not Schallers!). Well, off to play it now. Jonny
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Post by minorkey on May 27, 2017 15:41:58 GMT
Very nice. I should really dig mine out but I'm no Segovia
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Post by granty on May 27, 2017 20:02:45 GMT
Nice early birthday present
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Post by cottonopolis on May 31, 2017 16:43:42 GMT
Wow! What a fantastic pressy. Two Dean guitars below.
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 1, 2017 0:00:13 GMT
I'm very lucky - been playing it a lot and it's opening up nicely, always magical when a new spruce guitar's sound evolves so dramatically during the first few days. The bass is sounding well rounded and the top E string sounding very plump higher up the fingerboard. That's a great video cottonopolis, the guitars sound beautiful. Jonny
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007
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Post by 007 on Jun 1, 2017 19:43:52 GMT
Lovely looking guitar Jonny its my birthday coming up soon can you give Helen the heads up
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Post by creamburmese on Jun 5, 2017 19:58:24 GMT
Wow! Can't wait to hear you play it (and post to the forum )
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Post by jonnymosco on Jul 19, 2017 21:39:36 GMT
Here's how it sounds (sort of).
Jonny
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Post by lavaman on Jul 19, 2017 21:50:07 GMT
Wow, that guitar sounds wonderful when you play it.
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