Richard Jernigan -> RE: Concert Guitar vs Student Guitar (Aug. 17 2022 18:34:58)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Mark2 My best guitar allows me to play some passages that I literally can't execute on the cheaper guitars. It must have been 1965 or '66... My first guitar was a Paracho special I bought for 300 pesos in 1957--$24.00 at the exchange rate then. Its scale was long, it was pretty loud, its tone was a bit coarse. After a few year of work I could play on it the Mario Escudero transcriptions published at the time. They were fairly accurate. Also a couple of Niño Ricardo pieces copped off LPs, and a few other bits. Sabicas was beyond my ability to copy. There was (may still be) a big music store on the ground floor of the old Convento de las Vizcaínas in Mexico City. In those days the main street was called the Calle del Niño Perdido. These days it's the Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas. The convent is a couple of blocks from the Mercado de San Juan and the Salto del Agua. They had a used string instrument department that often had some interesting pieces. In those days in Mexico City, if you could afford to dress decently you did. I wandered into the music store dressed in a sport jacket, slacks, recently shined shoes. I noticed a nice looking guitar hanging on the wall behind the counter and asked if I could try it. The attendant was a blonde, blue eyed woman, maybe 50 years old. She wore a nice cardigan over a blouse, a pleated woolen skirt and sensible shoes. She handed me the guitar. It was a Santos Hernandez blanca from the 1930s, in perfect condition. At the time it was the best guitar I ever had in my hands, by a very wide margin. There was a row of chairs along the wall opposite the counter. I took a seat, took out my tuning fork in its tooled leather case, and tuned up the Santos. I played Escudero's Rondeña, pretty close to the original of his teacher Ramon Montoya. While I played two urchins came in off the street, sat down beside me and gazed admiringly. The guitar was marvelous. It played easily. It delivered nuances of tone and dynamics I had never experienced on my Paracho beast. It was simply exhilarating. When I finished I returned the guitar to the woman behind the counter. I noticed she had tears in her eyes. She said, "Gracias, jovén. Soy de Ronda....hace muchos años." She offered to make me a good price for the guitar, but I couldn't come anywhere near affording it. I turned to pick up my tuning fork, but it and the two urchins had disappeared. I walked immediately to the door and looked for them on the sidewalk, but they were long gone. Despite the loss, and the embarassment of being swindled, I was still on a high from the sensation of the guitar, and the compliment. A great instrument can make a very big difference. RNJ
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