365 Guitars, Amps & Effects You Must Play: The Most Sublime, Bizarre and Outrageous Gear Ever

934 Pages·2013·121.72 MB·English

by  Dave Hunter

1866 Torres Classical
The most hallowed name in the history of classical guitar, Antonio de Torres
consolidated the best work of luthiers of the mid-nineteenth century to bring the
guitar forward to the twentieth century and beyond. As such, Torres is widely
recognized as the father of the modern classical instrument and, essentially, the
Stradivarius of the guitar. The thinner and more responsive soundboard, livelier
and more structurally sound strutting, and simultaneously more ergonomic and
tone-enhancing design of the best contemporary classical guitars can all be
credited, to some degree, to Torres’ work. Unsurprisingly, Torres’ guitars are
extremely rare and highly prized today, so getting your grubby hands on one is
extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, any professional classical guitarist playing a
top-shelf classical instrument will have had daily contact with Torres’ legacy in
the guitars of later makers, such as Ramírez, Romanillos, Hauser, Hernández,
Fleta, Simplicio, and others who owe a great debt to the master. Should you get
your fingers around a genuine Torres, however, note how the understated, even
rather plain appearance gives way to a sublime voice mellowed and enhanced by
the sonic patina that only 150 years of beautiful music can provide.
Courtesy Retrofret Vintage Guitars/www.retrofret.com/photo by George Aslaender
1910 Bohmann Harp Guitar
Freak of nature? Medieval torture device? Au contraire, it’s the Bohmann Harp
Guitar, and as finger-twistingly unplayable as it might appear, this beast can
produce sublime, almost otherworldly music in the right hands. Relatively few
acoustic aficionados today are likely to have heard of Chicago guitar maker
Joseph Bohmann, who immigrated to the United States in 1878 from Neumarkt,
Bohemia (in present-day Germany). Bohmann was considered one of the most
skilled luthiers working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
winning eight major international instrument-making prizes between 1888 and
1904. Once you realize that the bass strings on this guitar’s upper neck aren’t
intended to be fretted but are harp strings plucked to resonate with the chord or
melody being played on the lower neck, this monster becomes somewhat more
approachable. Even so, this odd instrument that looks even more archaic than its
century-old lineage would suggest is a work of art in wood and wire even before
you approach it as a musical instrument.
Courtesy Outline Press Limited
1920s Dyer Symphony Harp Guitar
Style 8
Like the Bohmann harp guitar, this elaborate instrument was designed as a
somewhat conventional acoustic guitar with its own bass accompaniment. The
enthusiasm with which many makers addressed the form in the early part of the
twentieth century might have led guitarists to think that these were the real next
step forward, and of all the various designs on the table at the time, the harp
guitars sold by the Dyer company were possibly the most advanced. Rather than
supporting the several heavy-gauge bass strings under tension with just a sturdy
upper neck, a Dyer like this elaborately decorated Symphony Harp Guitar Style
8 had an entire body extension through which those drone strings would
resonate, producing a haunting, ethereal sound. Dyer, based in St. Paul,
Minnesota, didn’t actually manufacture these harp guitars. Early examples were
designed by Chris J. Knutsen, a Norwegian guitar maker working in the
northeastern United States, and most were manufactured by the Larson Brothers
of Chicago. Dyer harp guitars are exceedingly rare today; the instrument’s most
acclaimed proponents include Stephen Bennett and Michael Hedges, who died in
a car accident in 1997.
Courtesy Outline Press Limited
1920s Washburn Style A
Every player needs to have one of these little parlor guitars lying around, right?
Preferably in that remote mountain cabin where you noodle endlessly in front of
a crackling fire to renew your inspiration. (You do have a remote mountain
cabin, too, right?) From the 1880s, Washburn guitars were manufactured by
Chicago’s Lyon & Healy of Chicago in styles clearly much inspired by Martin.
Many were perfectly good little instruments right from the start, but by the post–
World War I period the company more consistently used X-bracing for their
guitar tops, broadly improving their tone as a result. Aside from the great North
American spruce and Brazilian rosewood that many of these petite beauties
employed and the deluxe mother-of-pearl inlays that the top models carried,
there’s just something magical about coaxing a sweet, mellow tune out of such a
tiny, old flat-top guitar. And while few such parlor-size Washburns offer much
by way of volume, their tone can often be sublime.