Post by jonnymosco on Jan 21, 2018 11:58:30 GMT
It’s not often we wait almost 30 years for a guitar, but yesterday I collected a guitar I’ve waited that long for.
30 years ago when I was a student and visiting a friend to play the guitar, a mysterious guitarist appeared with a guitar, the likes of which, I’d never heard: it had a huge sound with clarity and projection, but with delicate shimmery tones. The guitar was by Paul Fischer, but I’ve forgotten who the guitarist was who was in town to give a concert.
I now know, his sound was a result of bracing that differed to the usual Torres fan bracing.
20 years ago I was lucky enough for Paul Fischer to help me build a soundboard for a guitar I’d made with this bracing, he calls it his Taut System. It uses a lattice, like a lute and I’m sure he developed the concept from his lute making days with David Rubio synthesised with Simplicio’s practice of moving the sound hole(s) away from the centre of the soundboard to the upper bout so the soundboard has a larger vibrating area.
Greg Smallman also developed lattice bracing in 1979, but I’ll have to ask Paul if they were aware of each other. I find Fischers to be sweeter with more tonal range than Smallmans, which are notoriously banjo-like, Fischers' are much more than just projection.
Over the years I’ve missed out on three Fischer guitars - the most annoying at The Spanish Guitar Centre (which was just off Leicester Square) - it was when the guy, Barry Mason, was having financial difficulties and selling off all the guitars for almost nothing (you may have seen it featured on the TV show ‘Meet the Bailiffs’, or something like that). He had a new Fischer for £500, almost a twentieth of the actual price. I asked him to hold it for me but he wouldn’t. I went back the next day with the cash and it had gone. The shop closed later that week.
Moving on to last year - I now live in the same town as Paul and we see each other regularly for a drink and a chat. He had a stroke a few years ago and is now not making even though he has made an incredible recovery. He knows I’d love to own one of his guitars and he offered me the final guitar he made, quite an extraordinary instrument, but fan-braced. I know he doesn’t really want to part with it, but I was tempted. In the mean time a local guy advertised his Taut System guitar with two sound holes, for a great price as he’d dropped a music stand on it. It was a no-brainer. (The damage is superficial, just marked varnish and now mostly hidden by a good polish.)
I have a maxim, one-in-one-out… so, one's got to go. Which would I rather own, a Yulong Guo (which I love) or the guitar I’ve wanted for a large chunk of my life? So, the YG is up for sale…
I’ve made a recording of the Fischer. It is so powerful listening back to the recording, I will have to adapt my technique (I’d already adopted my approach for the Yulong Guo which is nomex and very powerful, but the Fischer is much more powerful).
I feel it is the nylon string equivalent of my Sobell, very balanced with amazing separation, but not without a unique character and presence. I also feel it is a great contrast to my Dean, the guitar my wife bought me last year which is fan-braced and I suppose more in line with the Spanish sound - interestingly, Christopher Dean worked with Paul Fischer in the '80s, but decided to follow a different path sonically.
I plan to make a video of the Dean back-to-back with the Fischer soon.
Cheers
Jonny
30 years ago when I was a student and visiting a friend to play the guitar, a mysterious guitarist appeared with a guitar, the likes of which, I’d never heard: it had a huge sound with clarity and projection, but with delicate shimmery tones. The guitar was by Paul Fischer, but I’ve forgotten who the guitarist was who was in town to give a concert.
I now know, his sound was a result of bracing that differed to the usual Torres fan bracing.
20 years ago I was lucky enough for Paul Fischer to help me build a soundboard for a guitar I’d made with this bracing, he calls it his Taut System. It uses a lattice, like a lute and I’m sure he developed the concept from his lute making days with David Rubio synthesised with Simplicio’s practice of moving the sound hole(s) away from the centre of the soundboard to the upper bout so the soundboard has a larger vibrating area.
Greg Smallman also developed lattice bracing in 1979, but I’ll have to ask Paul if they were aware of each other. I find Fischers to be sweeter with more tonal range than Smallmans, which are notoriously banjo-like, Fischers' are much more than just projection.
Over the years I’ve missed out on three Fischer guitars - the most annoying at The Spanish Guitar Centre (which was just off Leicester Square) - it was when the guy, Barry Mason, was having financial difficulties and selling off all the guitars for almost nothing (you may have seen it featured on the TV show ‘Meet the Bailiffs’, or something like that). He had a new Fischer for £500, almost a twentieth of the actual price. I asked him to hold it for me but he wouldn’t. I went back the next day with the cash and it had gone. The shop closed later that week.
Moving on to last year - I now live in the same town as Paul and we see each other regularly for a drink and a chat. He had a stroke a few years ago and is now not making even though he has made an incredible recovery. He knows I’d love to own one of his guitars and he offered me the final guitar he made, quite an extraordinary instrument, but fan-braced. I know he doesn’t really want to part with it, but I was tempted. In the mean time a local guy advertised his Taut System guitar with two sound holes, for a great price as he’d dropped a music stand on it. It was a no-brainer. (The damage is superficial, just marked varnish and now mostly hidden by a good polish.)
I have a maxim, one-in-one-out… so, one's got to go. Which would I rather own, a Yulong Guo (which I love) or the guitar I’ve wanted for a large chunk of my life? So, the YG is up for sale…
I’ve made a recording of the Fischer. It is so powerful listening back to the recording, I will have to adapt my technique (I’d already adopted my approach for the Yulong Guo which is nomex and very powerful, but the Fischer is much more powerful).
I feel it is the nylon string equivalent of my Sobell, very balanced with amazing separation, but not without a unique character and presence. I also feel it is a great contrast to my Dean, the guitar my wife bought me last year which is fan-braced and I suppose more in line with the Spanish sound - interestingly, Christopher Dean worked with Paul Fischer in the '80s, but decided to follow a different path sonically.
I plan to make a video of the Dean back-to-back with the Fischer soon.
Cheers
Jonny