Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
|
|
|
Marvi flamenco guitar review (sort of)... the other Marvi
|
You are logged in as Guest
|
|
Users viewing this topic: none
|
|
Login  | |
|
   
DavRom
Posts: 310
Joined: Jul. 16 2015
From: De camino a Sevilla
|
 Marvi flamenco guitar review (sort o...
|
|
|
The one without double back and sides...
Hey flamencophiles, it's been awhile since I've been on the foro. I hope you're all well and safe. I once said i would post a video of me playing an Anders Eliasson blanca i own, but never did. sorry! posting videos is just not my thing. But I am posting a video I made for my incoming kindergartners with my Marvi. They usually get a tour of their new kinder, music and art rooms this time of year, but along came covid-19 and we're all stuck at home. So we teachers were asked to make a short video introducing ourselves.
I've had the Marvi for about 6 months and it never ceases to amaze me with it's balance and clarity across the board and then it's power...holy sheet, this is definitely the loudest guitar i've ever played. Actually, i haven't played many, but i have played a few 70s ramirez classicals. As far as balance and clarity across the board, I can compare it to a Velazquez (elder) I once played (Velazquez def not have the same volume tho). The brilliance in the trebles is what drew me in to getting this guitar, but the basses are equally round and full. The bass strings here are dull cuz I'm a lazy mofo, but the trebles still sound good.
Also, I'm pretty sure it was Ricardo who said in a post that he thought the Marvi flamenco was just another classical (or something to that effect in regard to Gerardo's Marvi). I gotta beg to differ with that comment. This is so not a classical guitar. I can't get this kind of attack from a classical and the sustain is just not there. And the friggin action is so low I would love to hear Vicente play it or any of you guys if you are near me (a little town in central florida). It would be interesting to compare it to a Marvi classical.
I'm not a flamenco guitarist, just a fan who learns a falseta from time to time and who has come to deeply appreciate the unique sounds of flamenco. (there's a bit of talking in the middle)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rBKlvtEhrgGch-3RdWhHFfj61FVM6QdG/view
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 15 2020 5:56:20
 |
|
Ricardo
Posts: 14797
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
|
|
RE: Marvi flamenco guitar review (so... (in reply to DavRom)
|
|
|
quote:
Also, I'm pretty sure it was Ricardo who said in a post that he thought the Marvi flamenco was just another classical (or something to that effect in regard to Gerardo's Marvi).
For the record, the instrument that was passed around in early 2000’s, I can’t remember which year, the talk was about the fingerboard reinforcement under the soundboard portion, to enhance the high notes... it was quite unspectacular. Frankly I was confused by Gerardo’s choice. The same guitar appeared in the Encuentro video in 2004, I remember emailing him about it for the luthiers name. I feel that after Gerardo knocked the stiffness out of it and perhaps got a good string set for it, the sound was not bad, certainly not the same as before....however I was not surprised to see him turn back to his conde for serious work for 8 more years or so. He appears with a different Marvi, a cedar top, for many years now, at least another 7 years or so.
This summer I got to try out both the cedar top and a cypress/spruce model back to back...I don’t remember anything said about the neck reinforcement, but the impression I got was that he was less inclined to experimentation as before and these were quite traditional in style. Yes they were pretty loud and very much flamenco, so I’m sure yours is of this new stock.
Nice video for the kids!
Cheers!
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 15 2020 18:07:45
|
|
xirdneH_imiJ
Posts: 1889
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
|
|
RE: Marvi flamenco guitar review (so... (in reply to Ricardo)
|
|
|
Mine still has the reinforcement as it was intended as a classical and it was made in 2010. It's a cedar top.
On his site currently there's no mention of reinforcement in his flamencos (but the classicals are made this way). Here are the specs below. The only difference is the slightly wider neck towards the bridge on his classicals, which I'm not even noticing. Cedar is not an option for his flamencos, but I'm sure it can be negotiated. My tuning machines are Graf, apparently those are no longer available.
Flamenco
Types of wood used:
Indian Rosewood, spruce.
Brasilian Rosewood (tradeable), spruce.
Cypress, spruce.
Tuning Machines: Schaller or Fustero
Scale length: 655 mm.
String distance (bridge / bridge): 44 mm, / 58 mm.
Neck (bridge / 10th fret): 21 mm / 21 mm.
Raised neck on 12th fret (3 mm).
Double sides (only Brazilian Rosewood)Interior wooden peg lenthening to the sound hole
French polish.
Classical
Types of wood used:
Indian Rosewood, spruce or cedar.
Brasilian Rosewood (tradeable), spruce or cedar.
Other types of wood also available upon request.
Tuning Machines: Schaller or Alessi
Scale length: 650 mm and 655 mm.
String distance (bridge / bridge): 44 mm, / 60 mm.
Neck (bridge / 10th fret): 21 mm / 23 mm.
Raised neck on 12th fret (3 mm).
Ebony reinforcement in the neck
Double sides (only Brazilian Rosewood)
Interior wooden peg lenthening to the sound hole
French polish.
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 18 2020 2:10:50
|
|
Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
|
|
RE: Marvi flamenco guitar review (so... (in reply to JasonM)
|
|
|
Ferreirrola, where Marvi has his shop, is not in the Sierra Nevada as Chris Kamen says in the video. It is in the Alpujarras, south of Granada. You turn east at Lanjaron off the main highway from Granada to the coast, and wind about over narrow mountain roads. Ferreirrola is literally at the end of its own little road.
While in Granada several years ago I learned that a Foro member and his wife were vacationing at Ferreirrola. I rented a car at the Granada train station and drove to the village. It is a beautiful trip, even on the main road south. Out in the mountains you are in the wilderness. There was a reason I wanted to see the back country of the Alpujarras.
Not strictly guitar related: At the time Marvi had a very big German Shepherd looking dog. With the couple I visited we went to the nearest village that had a restaurant for mid day comida. We drank beer, ate salad, steak and potatoes, and discussed the way of the world for a couple of hours. There was some steak left over, which the restaurant boxed up for us.
The only place to park in Ferreirrola is in the little square just as you enter the town. There is only one street and a few very narrow alleys. The street descends fairly steeply from the square and passes by Marvi's shop. We could hear him working in the basement, but did not stop to disturb him.
The dog was lying near a basement window. He got up to investigate us. He showed considerable interest in the boxed up steak. The woman carrying it wasn't very big, the dog was gigantic and got more and more excited, enough to cause some concern.
For some reason it occurred to me to hiss very loudly at the dog. The sound snappped him out of his steak obsession. He returned to his station by the window, where he could hear his master working.
That was about all the excitement for that trip to the remote Alpujarras.
Except....Granada was taken from the Moors by siege. For the Emir Boabdil to surrender there was considerable negotiation. It resulted in an agreement which granted to the residents the continued possession and use of their language, religion, laws and judges. Boabdil and his court were granted safe passage to the coast, where they took ship for Morrocco.
The guarantees to the Granadans were eventually violated bit by bit by the Spanish Crown, resulting in unrest, revolt, repression, and eventually banishment of the moriscos more than a century after the surrender of Granada.
During Boabdil's retreat in 1492 some of the court veered off into the Alpujarras, and blended in with the local muslim population, which was eventually subjected to forced religious conversion, but largely escaped expulsion. Among their Christian descendants were the grandparents of my first true love. Their name was Gomerez. He was the village shopkeeper. Their daughter was a green eyed blonde. Her Berber looks were said to have surfaced many times before. A Communist Republican company was driven into the mountains by the winning Nationalist forces in the Civil war. Their elected Captain fell in love with the shopkeeper's daughter. He was from a land owning peasant family in the Vega, the agricultural country west of Granada. He courted the shopkeeper's daughter, eventually overcame her reluctance. They married and emigrated to Mexico, like so many others. With the wife's commercial knowledge and the husband's drive and ingenuity, they became prosperous.
Their daughter, another beautiful green eyed blonde, was my first true love. She was 18, I was 21. We were soon engaged, but waited to marry until I was out of the U.S. Army. She didn't live that long. She was gone at a little over 20.
The thought of her and our brief time together fifty-odd years before accompanied me through the mountains that day.
Saudade is a Portuguese word for which "nostalgia" is an inadequate translation. Among the ingredients of saudade are a sense of loss, and the privilege of recollecting a beautiful time.
The first time I heard Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim's "A Felicidade" the singer substituted "saudade" for "tristeza" as the first word:
Saudade não tem fim
Felicidade sim
A felicidade é como a gota
De orvalho numa pétala de flor
Brilha tranquila
Depois de leve oscila
E cai como uma lágrima de amor
The brief view of Ferreirrola in the video reminded me of that day in the mountains.
RNJ
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 21 2020 6:58:35
|
|
RobF
Posts: 1611
Joined: Aug. 24 2017
|
|
RE: Marvi flamenco guitar review (so... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
|
|
|
quote:
The only place to park in Ferreirrola is in the little square just as you enter the town.
If you go to Ferreirola in Google Streetview and follow the blue line as far as it goes, it will bring you to the square where you parked. Now, look to the right and, well, there’s your man himself, Andy. He’s wearing a red and grey jacket and has been standing there looking at the Google camera car for at least ten years now.
I was driving through the Alpujarras with a couple of friends five or six years ago and we went past the town of Capileira. It had been totally cloudy all day and the town was high enough to be engulfed in them. I don’t know why, but I figured we might be able to get above it all. So, we just kept climbing through the fog and finally did break through into a beautiful sunny day. We stopped the car and stood looking down at the clouds rolling off the sides of the hills below. A little white dog came up to me, tail wagging. To the right, and below, could be seen a farm with horses, where I guess he lived. I pet his head, and he hung out with us the entire time we stood there. I didn’t know it at the time, but had we have kept driving for a couple more kilometres we would have arrived at the Mirador Tajos del Ángel, which would have been spectacular to see on that day.
I took this picture of a chestnut tree on the outskirts of Capileira that afternoon. It gives a sense of the day.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
 Attachment (1)
|
|
|
|
REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 21 2020 10:07:18
|
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Forum Software powered by ASP Playground Advanced Edition 2.0.5
Copyright © 2000 - 2003 ASPPlayground.NET |
0.109375 secs.
|
Printable Version
