Fawkes -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 19 2025 18:04:00)
aw Ricardo you have to read past the gut and silk stringing and the whispery playing. The gut trebles are lush and lyrical, but yeah even though Mimmo at Aquila has compromised for the sake of modern sensibilities, his "19th century" style silk basses (the '800's) by their nature lack obvious overtones and sustain. I particularly like the 20th c. version depending on the player (the '900's).
Ricardo -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 20 2025 15:37:16)
actually I am comparing the maple back and sides....they tend to have some sort of similar property so you can cancel that out and focus on the other tonal qualities, of which Banana's instrument seems to be delivering very well.
estebanana -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 23 2025 2:37:01)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
actually I am comparing the maple back and sides....they tend to have some sort of similar property so you can cancel that out and focus on the other tonal qualities, of which Banana's instrument seems to be delivering very well.
That’s nice you are complementing my guitar, I appreciate the deep listening and minimal flowery language about tone. I realize after a long time making and listening to guitars I don’t have a way of describing tone quality, even though I have been asked to write numerous books. For a person as loquaciously ample as myself, a person who is not only a certified master wordsman, but who has survived club foot, black fever and night fever, it’s curious I have not developed a compendium of tone words for guitar tone.
But have a listen to this Torres played by the great Carles Trepat. The bass string sounds ‘boingy’ and I wonder if it’s because it’s gut over wound with metal wire?
I’ve heard gut basses that don’t have that slack sound, so is this a guitar that has a slack sounding bass E, or is this a guitar strung with period era strings that are a bit slack, too low of a tension?
I watch him manage the bass E carefully taking extra care to not hit it too hard. Trepat’s playing is graceful and has an old fashioned way about it, but I don’t feel it’s schmaltzy or romantic milked excess. I’d really like so hear this Torres with a string set I know well like a set of regular tension Savarez or La Bella’s.
This is a concert he gave in A Coruna in 2013. I like t because I’m fatigued by the hot dogging in current guitar competition playing, everyone sounds lukewarm and on a mixture of meth and beta blockers. This hits just right, get off my lawn!
Fawkes -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 23 2025 4:28:49)
Rob Mackillop reported in 2017 at the classical forum that Trepat is so devoted to original strings that he was nursing some original gut trebles and overspun silk basses for use in his concerts (when he was still playing with nails!) Perhaps he was already doing this in 2013.
It's intriguing that Trepat thinks original 19th century strings are unmatched in quality, while Mimmo Peruffo gave the original proportions of metal and silk a try and thought they were far too thumpy for modern tastes. He's got a video comparison somewhere at the other place.
estebanana -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 23 2025 7:54:54)
I grabbed this still shot from the Trepat video. It shows how he kept gut strings going by tying extra lengths of strings to the ends of gut basses that were worn or had broken too short to wind onto the rollers.
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Fawkes -> RE: Arias in spirit, constructed by Pendejo in material world (Jul. 23 2025 16:36:32)
An image of Pujol's instructions for preventing breakage of silk core basses by tying on lengths of gut, and a Rob MacKillop video about the process can be found toward the bottom of this page:
