Richard Jernigan -> RE: What it's all about (Jul. 11 2012 18:42:37)
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I used to order and pick up instruments for people in Texas from the famous Mexico City guitarrero Juan Pimentel Ramirez. I didn't make any profit. i didn't even cover my expenses. I just enjoyed dealing with the Maestro. I picked up a first class guitar for a very close friend, who is an excellent player. "Maestro, my friend likes for two American centavos just to fit under the strings at the 12th fret." "Do you happen to have two American centavos?" he asked. I passed him the coins. The Maestro placed them under the strings, held the guitar up to the light, and handed it to a helper to loosen the strings while the Maestro worked on another task. He never stopped working, even while talking to a customer. He popped the bone saddle out of the bridge, and made a mark on it with a ball point pen. No measuring device was used. The mark was made by eye. He walked over to a horizontal belt sander. Ssszzzt. He popped the saddle back into the bridge, and handed the guitar back to the helper for the strings to be tensioned and tuned. The helper handed the guitar to the Maestro, who refined the tuning for ten seconds, and handed the instrument to me without looking at the action. The two cents fit perfectly. RNJ
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