avimuno -> JL Postigo's collection of Reyes... and my 2004 Blackshear 'Reyes'. (Jul. 24 2011 7:42:03)
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Hola amigos, I am just back from a wonderful 2 months long trip to Sevilla and wanted to share a little story with you... maybe I should have posted this in the review section but it is not a review per say. In my two months in Sevilla I have hanged out quite a few times at Jose Luis Postigo's shop. I have been harassing him to let me try some of the guitars in his collection. After a while he got so fed up that he invited me to his house one afternoon in order for me to try as many guitars as I wanted [:)] So, I showed up on the said day and got up to his house armed with both my Conde and my Blackshear. He is a lovely and very welcoming person, as are his wife and son. He invited me to have some tapas and wine in his actual home first before going down to his shop. There he just opened all the cabinets his guitars are kept in and told me to try whatever I wanted whilst he kept a watchful eye. His collection is quite simply amazing... he has a few historical guitars (Barbero, Santos, Esteso etc) as well as a few examples of some of the best current builders in Spain... Reyes and Barba in particular. My main interest was the Reyes he had... 7 of them to be more precise. 6 blanca and a negra. They went from 1964 to 2009, with 2 from Reyes' supposed golden period (one from 1982 and one from 1987). I decided to try them one by one in a chronological order (except the negra and the 2009, which he was a bit reluctant to show me since they were already sold - to the same guy!). Here are the thought of a very humble flamenco player who has been obsessed with the Reyes sound for a while now... 1964: good guitar, excellent condition, plays like butter, but not so impressive. This was the cheapest of all the Reyes there... and at € 6,500 it's not even cheap. But it didn't catch my ears... 1972: very good guitar. Condition was ok, one repaired crack on the top, and could use some french polish touch up. Set up was excellent. Overall a really good guitar... very loud, well defined but not overly predominant mid range, crystalline trebles and a beautiful flamenco buzz. At € 10,500, it was already getting pretty steep... 1982: now things get interesting... the best of the four in my opinion! Absolutely amazing... everything a great flamenco guitar should be. To us flamenco guitar geeks, language can never approximate the true feeling and impression of having the guitar in one's hands... this one was very very special... the sound, the feel, the way the guitar reacted to rasgeados/alzapua,picado, the way each note blossomed from it... very sweet and lyrical (2 words that come up a lot when describing a Reyes), very expressive, yet aggressive in the best sense of the word... loud and clear. It could go from explosive to a whisper... I have never experienced such a wide range of dynamics on a guitar. This one came with a price tag of € 18,000 - incredibly expensive but it truly was special. It was not for sale as Postigo was keeping it for Vicente Amigo to try the next time he visited him. 1987: after playing the 1982, this one did not catch my attention so much... it was still an excellent guitar but it was missing the 1982's mojo/duende, and it definitely did not have the dynamic range of the 1982. Still, it was a really good guitar. After having played those guitars for a while, I busted my Blackshear out of it's case in order to get a true feeling of how similar/disimilar it was to a Reyes (or to a bunch of them rather)... my Blackshear is the first Reyes model Tom built in 2004. It was copied after a 2003 Reyes. My feelings about that guitar were that it was really an amazing instrument. I used to own a Kenny Hill Reyes before buying the Blackshear and, although the Hill is also a very good instrument for the money, the Blackshear has something special that makes me come back to it all the time. I had however never played a Reyes before this afternoon... and to be very honest, I was very pleasantly surprised at how good of a luthier Tom Blackshear is. I will not get into the direct comparison to a Reyes... this is a highly subjective matter with many considerations going into the equation. What I will however say is that the Blackshear was in no way inferior (both in terms of playability/sound quality and building standards) to the 4 Reyes I played. Each guitar sounded different but there was definitely a common thread in all of them... like the 4 members of the same family. Tom definitely got that right in his guitar... bullseye in fact! Postigo was very impressed with the Blackshear. For me, that 1982 Reyes was something very unique, but I wouldn't buy it because I already have an amazing guitar that is firmly grounded in the same genealogy as a Reyes. And for € 18,000... the Blackshear is hands down the guitar that steals the show for me... although the Reyes has a collect-ability factor that I cannot deny. As I said, Postigo himself was very impressed with Tom's work. He even wanted me to come back the week after so that a friend of his (a Reyes aficionado) could try it... I had unfortunately already left Sevilla. To finish, there was definitely a lesson to be learned there, one I have learned already a while ago, but which has been reinforced... a good guitar is a good guitar, no matter what label is glued inside it. And some builders outside Spain can build an incredible flamenco guitar that matches the best Spanish builders, for less money... we are truly living the golden age of flamenco guitar building! Saludos, Avi
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