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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 17, 2013 20:30:44 GMT
Today I was invited to visit the luthier Josep Melo, just outside Barcelona. He makes a variety of guitars: electric, archtop, classical and acoustic and also used to make amps. I was impressed with his classicals - one he made with Jose Romanillos which was fab. His archtops take inspiration from D'Aquisto, who he also worked with and his steel stringed guitars from Steve Klein and the mad physicist Dr Kasha. It is becoming clear to me why the ideas of Kasha have never been widely adopted... Gibson gave up on them too. I'd never heard of Melo, but has a dealer in the States and is going to Healdsburg this year. His workmanship was top-notch and probably his archtops sound phenomenal. I love his detatchable pickguard with a pickup/mic/controls/socket built in - very neat. Also on his classicals he uses a very long saddle (sloping height) which can be slid along when changing strings to change the height of the strings/action, very clever, looks a bit unfinished, but an idea he took from D'Aquisto's archtops, maybe used by other makers, I don't know. Okay, the final picture is of a guitar not by him... that one sounds not too shabby! I visited Camps too... will upload when I have some time soon. Jonny www.meloguitars.com/about.html
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Post by earwighoney on Jun 17, 2013 20:41:40 GMT
How was it?
Barcelona's not really seen to be a centre for guitar making as much as other parts of Spain, eg Cordoba, Almeria, Valencia and Madrid. I'd be intrigued to find out about the city's guitar making. I've been there once, wonderful place.
He has a excellent moustache, a little similar to the moustache of the great Greek luthier Vasilis Lazarides.
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 17, 2013 20:59:57 GMT
Added text now... and shall elaborate if anyone is interested in more specific details.
I would think he has a marketing problem exporting anything not classical being from Spain.
There is a big Barcelona 'school' of classical making, Fleta being the most famous... and the workshops of Picado and Camps and Paulino Bernabe, others too. But I get the impression Melo doesn't want to be part of that tradition, otherwise he would specialise in just classical.
Jonny
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Post by Phil Taylor on Jun 17, 2013 22:56:18 GMT
Very interesting Jonny - his guitars are cetainly unusual. Seems like you enjoyed the visit. Thanks for posting Phil
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 17, 2013 23:07:49 GMT
You have been having a good time !
Not too keen on the holey headstocks, though I suppose they'd be handy for hanging the guitars on the wall, though they seem to be hanging them by the tuners.... But, as you say, the pickguard pickup thingy looks very neat.
Keith
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 18, 2013 6:30:22 GMT
Josep has some strong views on woods for his acoustics/classicals, nothing can come close to BR and it is the back and sides that give guitars their 'sound'. He wasn't impressed I had a guitar made with wenge, said that's good for basses and has no similarities with BR. When I said Sobell, as well as Somogyi, rated it he didn't understand why. He makes four piece backs due to the short supply of good larger pieces of BR. He also used birdseye maple. His classicals with BR were very good - braced with the Torres fan. I had hoped he made classicals with Kasha's bracing design, as that's the model I used for the classical I made (top collapsed though, probably more to do with the redwood I used rather than the bracing), but his Kasha steel string I played didn't possess any of the attributes Kasha was trying to demonstrate anyway... that may be a bit harsh, it was probably well balanced, just very quiet and thin-sounding. One Klein's guitars showing similar bracing. Jonny
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 18, 2013 7:33:29 GMT
I confess to being quite taken by the rather avant garde appearance of them there guitars... which is odd, as I'm not usually.
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Post by earwighoney on Jun 18, 2013 8:33:54 GMT
There is a big Barcelona 'school' of classical making, Fleta being the most famous... and the workshops of Picado and Camps and Paulino Bernabe, others too. But I get the impression Melo doesn't want to be part of that tradition, otherwise he would specialise in just classical.Jonny I stand corrected! A bit of a massive oversight on behalf... *slams head on table* An interesting point made about the traditional perspective towards tonewoods. Even though Melo isn't a traditional guitar maker like others in Spain, when it comes to tonewoods there's a lot of conservatism. Even though I've seen a few new choices cropping now again eg Ziricote, Cocobolo for classicals, the standard tonewoods for classical being cedar and EIR/Braz rosewood seem the benchmark. For Flamenco in Spain it's German Spruce all the way; I've never seen or read about a flamenco with a Sitka spruce soundboard. For back and sides, occasionally padauk/coral pops up, as does Palo Escrito which is really popular in Mexico. I've not played a Wenge acoustic, pretty much every recording of one I've heard has been outstanding. The picture of Melo's moustache gets better the more I look at it. Exquisite.
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 18, 2013 8:35:53 GMT
Such a shame that Jonny's camera seems to have run out of colour on some of the photographs. He should get that topped up by a specialist or something.
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 18, 2013 9:11:21 GMT
The picture of Melo's moustache gets better the more I look at it. Exquisite. One side of his handlebar had been chopped off! He seemed happy to make guitars to order. What was strange though was that there wasn't any sign that he is making anything... nothing at all under construction - even Jason Kostal will do a few backs at the same time as it's time-efficient. Jonny
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Post by earwighoney on Jun 18, 2013 9:30:04 GMT
One side of his handlebar had been chopped off! Jonny There are many dangers to moustaches. Soup and scissors are two of the big ones. My face is currently bald. How's your Self Built/Dave White Blanca coming along? A bit of a distraction of sorts, but how do you divide your time between playing steel strings and nylon strings? Can you transfer from one to another?
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Post by jonnymosco on Jun 18, 2013 11:00:33 GMT
I'll be at Dave's in a few days time to fiddle a bit with the flamenco - last stages.
I find it easy to transfer from one to the other. As for practicing, it goes in waves... a few months ago I was only playing steel string in DADGAD practicing for a gig, now I'm mainly playing nylon as I'm brushing up on sight reading chords higher up the fingerboard - but I do give the Kostal a strum every day.
Can you transfer easily?
Jonny
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Post by earwighoney on Jun 18, 2013 11:27:02 GMT
I find transferring from the different types very difficult.
For flamenco, mainly down to the right hand techniques of having the ring finger/golpe and differences in pulgar/thumb and these are things which take a bit of time to address back to acoustic guitar fingerpicking. Then there's left hand issues which are a whole other can of worms!
Practising, I'm still trying to work out what is more effective, allocating blocks eg a week or two for each instrument, which generally requires a day or two finding the way around the instrument again (if that makes sense) or alternating as frequently as possible. I find each one has it's gains and disadvantages.
Good to hear the blanca is approaching it's last stages.
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Post by michaelwatts on Jun 19, 2013 12:09:51 GMT
Great pics Jonny! Lovely looking Somogyi too, I do like a burl headstock sometimes.
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Post by scorpiodog on Jun 19, 2013 15:25:24 GMT
Looks like you had a really interesting time, Jonny. How did you come to be invited to his workshop? I confess, I really love the look of those archtops, holey headstocks and all.
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