Over the years I've had many cool axes come through the store, but few have been cooler than two guitars that are currently in stock. And what's unusual (for me) is that they are both nylon string guitars. First up we have the Rolf Spuler which I first became aware of through the unique guitar stylings of Jose Neto who has been one of Steve Winwood's sidemen on his last few albums. Mr. Leto's playing is incredibly fluid and melodic and is one of the musical features that initially attracted me to Mr. Winwood's latest work. When I got the first of their collaborations I quickly looked to the booklet photos to see what instrument Mr. Neto was using to make those incredible sounds. My head almost exploded when I saw my first photos of this gorgeously designed guitar. My next move was to find out about this brilliant luthier who designed and built this masterpiece. Mr Spuler is an engineer, artist and musician who combined these talents to come up with, what I consider to be, one of the most beautiful and innovative guitars - the Paradis. Based in Switzerland, Mr. Spuler's aim was to design a player friendly acoustic-electric guitar that would stay true to it's natural sound at any volume. The result is the Paradis. Available in both steel or nylon string versions this guitar can play at incredibly high volume and remain natural sounding without feeding back. The Piezo pickup system is Mr. Spuler's original design and features a hexaphonic arrangement  where each string can be individually tuned to sound perfectly balanced, dynamic and open. In stereo operating mode the strings can be separately assigned to either left or right channels. Also single string channels are ideal for midi systems and modern multi-channel sound modeling. Another innovative feature is Mr. Spuler's use of polybass which generates a resonance below the fundamental frequency of the strings. This phenomena is partly responsible for the extra warmth provided by truly fine acoustic guitars. The is accomplished by passing the signal through a tuned circuit that detects the fundamental and generates a lower octave which is mixed back in a user controlled amount which produces an extra warmth in the bass range (lower 4 strings). Phase interference is eliminated by a patented "priority mode" circuit that continuously analyzes which strings are plucked giving priority to the lowest octave. The resulting sound is a fairly subtle fattening and enhancement of the bass notes. Another innovative feature is it's ability to interface with Firewire software using a bus cable. Firewire allows for direct connection to various sound programs and recording software, individual pitch transposing per individual string, poly distortion and triggering programs for accurate score writing. The less technical aspects of the Paradis include a solid flamed Maple, hand carved body, Brazilian Rosewood neck and fretboard (not available from Spuler at this time) magnetically attached flamed Maple headstock covers and tailpiece mounted control. Oh, by the way, it weighs a mere 5 lbs. 9 oz. Other Paradis players include: Al DiMeola, Andreas Wollenweider and Bela Fleck.       (see photos below)

The other fabulous nylon  we have comes to us via the skilled craftsmanship of Long Island, New York's Rich Di Carlo. For years Mr. Di Carlo has been providing nylon stringed guitar to some of the New York area's best and most well known guitarists including Jack Wilkins, Vic Juris, Jorge Morel, Carl Barry and the late Lenny Argese. Mr Di Carlo's interest in nylond string construction reaches back to 1972 when he picked up his custom ordered archtop from Jimmy D'Aquisto. Jimmy's workshop inspired Rich to build guitars himself and Jimmy was gracious enough to agree to give Rich some hints and advice. This may seem odd in that Rich is a nylon string builder while Jimmy is best known for his archtops, but Jimmy was very well versed in construction of all styles of guitars. Rich has now been building his own instruments steadily since 1981 and has honed his craft to a fine edge. His line now consists of Classical, Flamencos and Jazz Nylons. Plus he is well known for constructing guitars in seven and eight string variations. You really need to see the Hi Dee Mostro he made for Michelle Ramo - it's an eight string with the lower two strings being fretless. And what's more, you need to Ramo play it - you head will explode! The Jazz Nylon currently in our inventory features a solid, flamed Maple body with Maple neck. Mr. Di Carlo feels that most jazz players will prefer Maple since it is a bit brighter than more traditional classical woods. It also has an RMC Polydrive IV pickup system and is Midi ready with a 13 pin output jack along with the more traditional 1/4" jack. This is one of today's premier jazz nylon string guitars, so don't miss out. It's world class in every way.   (see phots below)

We are now accepting intermediate and advanced students for Thursday (3:30 - 7:00) lessons with Gary Oleyar (Loggins and Messina)    

Jazz, Rock, Blues, Country on Fiddle or Guitar

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