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Super excited about my new Stephan Faulk blanca! Stephen really exceeded my expectations. I wanted it to be loud and easy to play and he really nailed it. Living near guitar salon and trilogy I've played a lot of really high end guitars and this one is just perfect for me, exactly to a T what I told him I wanted. I've kind of fallen off from practicing lately and lost my motivation and this was the pick me up I needed. This thing is just a beast. Came in on Friday and my fingers are throbbing but I can't put it down. Unfortunately my iPhone recording and playing doesn't really do it justice. but hope you guys enjoy and gracias Estebananasan!
Spec's Top: Englemann Spruce B&S: Hinoki Cypress Neck: Mersawa Fingerboard: Maccassar Ebony Scale: 655 Bridge: Cherry Koa back fillet and head plate
Posts: 1821
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
That's great mate! I always feel excited when someone gets a new guitar. Yours sounds great! I'd love to try one of Stephens guitars one day. Sounds like you'll have trouble putting it down.
Posts: 3467
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
Que bueno, Lenny! The guitar is beautiful and sounds great. I'm glad it has re-motivated you. It is good to see Foro members ordering guitars from Foro luthiers, and Stephen is top-notch. May it bring you decades and decades of joy.
Bill
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Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
Aww man , what a show off....!!! . . . Actually , very good review , Im sure it sounds better being next to it as oppose to through my speakers , but it does sound good,..
i hear a very explosive and percussive kind of sound ..i also hear thats its well balanced , seems as loud on the trebles as the bass ..
Hinoki Cypress !!,, you have a japanese hybrid guitar ,,.. they always end up making everything better , cars , bikes , computers .. and now flamenco guitars .
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Gracilis’, or Hinoki Cypress , Beautiful in a Japanese Garden,, until some guy chainsaws it away to make a back and sides ...
So great , hope you have a suitable case for storage etc .. now all you gotta do is learn to play it .... that should keep you busy for ......the rest of your life...
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
Hey Lenny, I bet that beard comes in handy on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Here is the video I made for you before I shipped it, I think you saw this. I'm very glad the shipping was fast...I can't tell..how glad.
As you settle in to the guitar you may notice it does not take a lot of force or effort to make it switch on. I got he sense through our exchanges that you've been playing guitars that are very duro, stiff and not responsive without pushing. This one will be different.
The bridge is very light, the lightest one I have ever made, it really should not even be street legal. It means in the mix of top thickness, stiffness and bracing that guitar with very light bridge will mean it possible to over play it, and with the low low action set up it can sound "crunchy" if you rasgueado slam it like a hard tough guitar like you've been dealing with. It might take time, but you may find a slightly different right hand angle and lay back a bit and it will produce *your* sound.
It's working great for the left hand, I set up the nut carefully to make ligato peel off like "buttah". So now the left hand will automatically find nuance you did not have before. And without grunting and effort. The right hand is harder to pull back, but I am wondering how it will go over the next couple months when you find the sweet spot more. Don't be afraid to approach it with light feathery slice when you do rageo. Experiment.
This is the sound I got out of it, fuzzy, woolly. Anyway I'm looking forward to see what Ethan and Jose think so let me know and ask them for feedback on it. of course if they don't like it write me an email, if they like it please BRAG about it on the Foro! HAHA
It was great to finally make a guitar for you friend after all the goofing off we do on the foro. We're both hard working guys and I salute your commitment to play flamenco.
Maybe someday you can show folks what it sound like with the cejilla on three por solea or siguriya..I thought it was quite magical on frets three -two -four.
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
Thanks Ya'll!!!
Thanks Stephen! Yeah, it's gunna take me a while to unlearn years of bad habits, essentially playing way too hard, all the time. Haha I've never owned an instrument with dynamic range so I'll have to learn to adjust. I was supposed to see Jose yesterday but we ended up having a lil family issue. I should see him again pretty soon though and Ethan is on a kind of small tour for his Sonikete Blues album but hopefully I'll be able to catch up with him soon. Oh yeah, if you don't mind I think I might tell people the back and sides were stolen from a geisha house, Thats a good one haha jk
quote:
Now we need a video of you accompanying your fiancee's tientos with your brand new guitar!
I'll work on it, in the past she been pretty anti uploading, I've noticed dancers in general seem to be much pickier about what goes up.
RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to Leñador)
Nah I get that. I still go busking from time to time when it's nice out and I don't have any work to do. I have a sign I put up that asks people to drop the phone and listen because I don't want to end up on YouTube. There's nothing that legally prevents them from uploading a video, but they'd come off as a**holes posting a video with the sign right in the middle asking them not to... So far I haven't found anything of me on there, but maybe I should start looking with other key words like "horrible flamenco street artist"
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RE: My new Stephan Faulk blanca!!! (in reply to estebanana)
Don't overestimate the amount of people in the YouTube crowd who are able to use the work "truculent" in a sentence. A search for "truculent" on YouTube yields 4 980 results. In comparison, a search for "twerk" yields 5 280 000 results. I would try something like "homeless gipsy guitar drunk as f*** yolo jam french". There should be at least one video of me on there. Some parents came up to me and asked if they could "share" their video because their toddler had really got in the groove and danced his brains out to the music. I said sure. Of course I pointed out to them that the kid had been dancing alegrias on what was clearly a bulerias and this could permanently dent his dancing career. Seriously, A 3 year old still making that mistake! Sheesh! I never found it but it might be out there somewhere.