As a builder, working with dealers is something that can be mutually beneficial and hassle-free or in other cases a relationship fraught with second-guessing and difficult negotiations.  I have had both experiences in the past 20 years but I am a little more selective these days.  My latest collaboration is with Richard Sayage of Savage Classical Guitar.  Rich has been easy to deal with, very supportive and is certainly one of the more knowledgeable dealers I have had the pleasure of working with.  A dealer, guitar-maker or player can only be great when his he is drawn to the guitar by passion and consuming interest in the guitar.  If the love is not there you might as well be selling cars.  I had already heard about Rich’s honesty and responsibility from a guitar-maker in Massachusetts but I am glad to be finding out for my self now. 

The rosette on the guitar I sent him is based on a design by my teacher Rolf Eichinger although it must be said that it is simple enough that it has surely been used before.  However, I am not the only one using this idea lately.  A least two other disciples of Rolf’s and one disciple of a disciple are using something similar and you can find photos of these guitars around the internet.

The french classical guitar magazine has published a short book review of the Granada guitarmakers book in their winter issue.  Very kind of them especially considering that the book is in not written in French.  I checked their facebook page and I see they are actually quite active, so many times I see blogs or pages that start out with great promises and potential and then stagnate as no one can find the time to post good stuff.  Not that I don’t understand the problem, finding something interesting and digging up more information in order to make it worthwhile takes time and energy.  When I started this blog I asked a few people if they would like to do a guest post and almost no one took me up on it.   I suppose it only makes sense if you have your own blog and a post here would draw people to your site.  However, the offer remains open and relevant posts are welcome, just send me a message through the contact page and tell me your idea.

As this blog becomes more popular I get requests from people who wish to sell guitars they have.  I don’t mind passing the information on but I reserve the right to pick and choose which guitars I talk about.  Manuel de la Chica is one of my personal favorites as he started a trend of making higher quality instruments and might be the strongest link Granada has to Santos Hernández.  I don’t know anything about this particular instrument, just that it is in Brussels and  was made in 1958.  If you are interested email me and I will send you contact details. 

I grew up near Edmonton, Alberta and then moved to the city for university and spent a total of four years there.  My sister lives there came across an article in a local magazine she thought I might find interesting.   I had never heard of Frank Gay and although I find the claims of “one of the greatest players and builders in the world” a bit ambitious that is typical of this little world we love.  He may well have been the best ever but how was anyone to know?  To be hailed as one of the best today requires only that you have an excellent marketing machine working for you while back in those days (50s and onwards) becoming famous for building or playing was hardly possible.   The article tells us of a  recently published book about Frank which I am sure will make for good reading and gives me another reason to be proud of my “home town”.

This photo comes from the following page by Marc O’Hara.

I did a search on the magazine’s webpage for guitar and found the reference to a 20th anniversary concert of the Edmonton Classical Guitar Society (It seems that Frank founded one of those in Edmonton but obviously not this one).  The lineup looked good and included Sebastian Robles who won 4th prize in the youth category of the GFA this year.  Keep on Truckin’ Edmonton!