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Posts: 263
Joined: Mar. 19 2024
From: Hunan, China
Andres Marvi's string height
Hi guys. How are you?
Recently, I have been interested in Andres Marvi's guitars. The bass is wild, and the high pitch is bright. I have found many Andres on the internet, but most of the heights of the saddle are very low, from 6mm to 7.5mm, and the heights on the 12th fret are about 2.7mm.
I was wondering why many Marvi guitars had such low settings. Do these guitars' necks bend easily? I am interested in buying one with 7.2mm on the saddle and 2.8mm on the 12th. But I don't know if this guitar will keep changing.
Posts: 16288
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to hxwhf72752003)
My opinion is they are not "bright" as you say. How would you know if the neck had "bent"? Guitars are stable with stable humidity...if you force them to endure wild changes any guitar will have to adapt to that. Those numbers only tell us how the neck angle was set, which sounds quite good for a flamenco guitar.
Posts: 4824
Joined: Aug. 9 2006
From: Iran (living in Germany)
RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to hxwhf72752003)
here at 4:30 he talks about specifically the tolerances and the string height at the bridge area and how important that is.
He also talks about how he started with flamenco, but tried to implement classical "features" in to them. Maybe this is why in my opinion his guitars usually have a - let's say - warmer sweeter tone and not as aggressive/bright or whatever you want to call that other style.
This one with the pegs is probably the "brightest" one I have heard, but usually his guitars are warmer and fuller sounding. He also builds with a more raised Neck which goes up to almost to the sound hole
Posts: 263
Joined: Mar. 19 2024
From: Hunan, China
RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to Echi)
Thank you Echi. Your information is useful! This guitar is from Diego. A very good person who knows a lot about guitars. We had a nice talk and I love that Marvi.
RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to hxwhf72752003)
I don't know much about Marvi's guitars except that they are good enough for Gerardo.
What I do know is that the last time we were in Spain (2012) we stayed in a small village in the hills south of Granada, and discovered that his workshop was just around the corner. Had a nice chat with Andy but didn't need to try any guitars.
Andy had a very nice dog who we would see every day as we went up to the village taps; here's a portrait.
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RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to Estevan)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Estevan
I don't know much about Marvi's guitars except that they are good enough for Gerardo.
What I do know is that the last time we were in Spain (2012) we stayed in a small village in the hills south of Granada, and discovered that his workshop was just around the corner. Had a nice chat with Andy but didn't need to try any guitars.
Andy had a very nice dog who we would see every day as we went up to the village taps; here's a portrait.
Ferreirola. I was there about the same time you were, in October. Fun fact, if you take a walk along the Calle Real de Ferreirola via Google Streetview, starting at the main entrance of the town, you'll eventually come across the man himself, taking a stroll up the road. I think the cam car must have been there about the same time we were as the image has been there ever since. When you see the guy wearing the red and white windbreaker, that'd be Andy.*
P.S. anyone who's fortunate enough to visit Granada really does owe themselves a drive into the Alpujarras. There are also bus tours that can be taken. Well worth the effort.
*I'd give the specific address, but that'd take the fun out of it....
Posts: 3544
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: Andres Marvi's string height (in reply to Estevan)
quote:
I don't know much about Marvi's guitars except that they are good enough for Gerardo.
What I do know is that the last time we were in Spain (2012) we stayed in a small village in the hills south of Granada, and discovered that his workshop was just around the corner. Had a nice chat with Andy but didn't need to try any guitars.
Andy had a very nice dog who we would see every day as we went up to the village taps; here's a portrait.
I was in Granada at the time. Saw on the Foro that you and your wife were at Ferreirola and drove down for lunch.
On the main highway south from Granada you pass through "El Suspiro del Moro." The story is that in 1492, Boabdil, the Emir, was granted safe passage to Malaga after surrendering Granada to the siege of Los Reyes Católicos. He paused at the height of the pass to take a last view of the city, and wept. His mother upbraided him, saying, "If you had fought like a man instead of weeping like a woman, you would still possess the city."
Turning off into the mountains I felt a connection to the landscape, though it was new to me. Instead of continuing to Malaga some of Boabdil's retinue peeled off into the Alpujarras and established themselves in the remote mountainous hinterland. My first true love was a descendant. She was 18, I was 22. Her ancestry was evident in her mother's maiden name, in her Berber blonde hair, her light complexion and green eyes. She died very young. I still dream of her a few times a year.
Ferreirola is indeed remote. Driving, you reach it only after traversing miles and miles of narrow, twisty mountain roads.
Returning from lunch in the next village, we walked down the hill from the parked car to your apartment, passing Marvi's house and workshop. Through an open window we could hear him at work. The dog took a bit too much interest in the leftover steak your wife was carrying, until I hissed at him like an annoyed cat. He returned promptly to his shady spot and laid down like a good boy.
I was also there in the same timeframe, but later, in October of 2012. Small world.
The picture of the donkey was taken in Ferreirola. The chestnut tree in the mist was taken somewhere else in the Alpujarras*, at the entrance to one of the other Moorish styled towns.
* turns out I took this one in 2015 and the town is Capileira, which is quite a bit higher up in the mountains. The mist is not fog, it's the top of a cloud. I remember that day, it was overcast and we kept driving until we broke through the clouds into a beautiful sunny day. We stopped at the side of the road and watched the clouds billowing and rolling off the sides of the hills below and a little dog ran up to us out of nowhere, tail wagging, and hung out with us until it was time to go. Good memories, those.
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