Its always nice to hear that people are enjoying the guitar I made for them, but this note from my guy Pete in Philly really made me smile. It’s great knowing that theres a guitar out there that i put together that is now part of someone’s musical journey. REALLY satisfying.
Victor,
Hey man…I’m having trouble putting into words how happy I am with this guitar. Besides the fact that it’s absolutely gorgeous looking, it feels so great in my hands and it’s such a joy to play. This neck…damn! I’m just so happy with what you came up with. It feels like the profile is a nice full C shape and the thickness is just spot on. I wouldn’t want it a single millimeter bigger or smaller.
Thinking back on how paranoid I was about everything makes me realize how pointless it was…you truly know the best fit for your instruments. I’m so glad you convinced me to stay at a 14″ bout. 15″ would be too much air and unfocused. The 2-3/8″ depth is right in between a typical jazz box and a thinline 335-ish size…so perfect. I’ll be honest, when I saw the first pic with hardware I was a little bummed that the pickups and tuner buttons weren’t gold…and now I’m absolutely in love with the dark ebony theme running through this guitar! I switched to gold Delta buttons and laid faux gold plates on the pickups to see how it’d look…the ebony is so much more hip looking. You somehow read my mind. Yet another example of how you know your instruments so well.
You’re an incredibly talented and inspiring luthier Victor. When I was searching for a builder it was like most everyone else fell into a typical category of tired designs. Your work is unique and just plain awesome. The instruments you’ve made are incredible contributions to the jazz guitar world and are going to be revered forever.
There’s no point in me telling you how great every single aspect of the guitar is…you already know it. I can’t wait to see it break in and grow even better with age. Btw I read your site bio and never realized…besides us both being Philadelphians, I also got my Berklee degree in Pro Music, studied with Pat Martino (still do every few months), and started my guitar career by stealing my sister’s cheap old acoustic. Crazy!
So I hope I wasn’t too much of a pain in the past months. You’ve been such a pleasure to deal with. Maybe I’ll get you a new project or two…I’m gonna be bragging/showing off to my 30+ students and the other guitar faculty at the University of the Arts. Thanks for reading this now mini-novel sized email! Talk to you soon.
-Pete
PS – Next on the list is a small semi hollow thinline…ETA 2016? 😉
