alhambra - Philippe Bertaud

Smells Like Teen Spirit for Solo Guitar

Mar 292012

In his “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, shredding like Yngwie Malmsteen, adding percussion, bass line, Philippe Bertaud opens a new way to classical guitar.
Are you ready to Rock n’ Roll?
Smells Like Teen Spirit for Solo Guitar:
Buy the Sheet Music

Spruce or Cedar?

Guitars I Love! No Responses »

Mar 162012

Having spent the last few months working with the guitar makers at Alhambra on my Signature Guitar Model, I realized my taste have dramatically changed.

It was even without thinking about it that I opted for a Spruce top… like quite always when I pick up a guitar. A lot of folks are unconditionally love Spruce, others just live by the Cedar…
Where is the truth?

It actually really depends what you are looking for… and you have different qualities of Spruce and Cedar used to build guitars. All with different characteristics.
Let’s a take a look.

Spruce (Spruce Top guitar)

Its high stiffness combined with the lightweight characteristics of most softwoods, makes it a natural for high velocity of sound.
A strong fundamental-to-overtone ratio gives Sitka spruce a powerful direct tone capable of retaining its clarity when played forcefully.

Sitka Spruce from North West Canada and Alaska -Its high stiffness combined with the lightweight characteristics of most softwoods, makes it a natural for high velocity of sound.

Red spruce is relatively heavy, has a high velocity of sound, and the highest stiffness across and along the grain of all the top woods.

Like Sitka, is has a strong fundamental, but also a more complex overtone content.

Engelmann Spruce from North America is prized for its similarity in color to European (German) White spruce as well as its extreme lightness in weight which seems to produce a slightly louder and more projective or “open” sound than Sitka spruce.

Cedar (Cedar Top guitar)

Western Red Cedar from Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.It has long been used as a soundboard material by classical guitar makers for its vibrance and clarity of sound.

It’s extremely light weight compared to spruce, and the tonal result is a slightly warmer tone, more open response.

An interesting characteristic of Red Cedar is that it sounds broken in, even when it’s new.

Cedar looks a lot like redwood:

darker and reddish compared to spruce.

Since World War II, cedar has been used extensively by makers of classical guitars. Cedar-topped guitars are characteristically lush, dark-toned, and bursting with flavor. They are often less powerful in projection than their spruce cousins, however, and they tend to lose clarity near the top of their dynamic range. Having enough bottom end is never a problem for a cedar guitar, although preventing the sound from getting muddy sometimes is. Because of its pronounced weakness along the grain, I find cedar to be used to its best advantage in smaller-bodied guitars or with non-scalloped braces. Redwood is usually darker in color than cedar and often displays the same general tonal characteristics, leaning slightly toward darker tones, less definition in the bass, and lower velocity of sound.

Those are the big lines to pick up your wood… but the bracing is really critical too and the way the builder will “tune” the wood. Therefore, after picking up a beautiful spruce… I finally chose a cedar! Extremely responsive, it also offers a very bright sound when needed. The bracing on the Signature Guitar Model incorporates all the features I love in my other guitars such as the harmonic bars in my Luthier India and the floating bracing in my Linea Profesional.

I will post pictures of it as soon as we have the patent. The guitar will be completely finished in April and commercialization will start next October.

Stay tuned… and Happy Playing!

Lynchburg Music Center, VA

The News No Responses »

Jun 242009

Wednesday June 24th at 7:00 PM
Lynchburg Music Center
6006 Fort Ave.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
434-237-0073

That is the main music store in town. They offer a huge selection of guitars and all kind of instruments. Those guys even offer music lesson and Tina is in charge of the music school at the store.

All type of strings are on shelves, which is really rare as people usually go for the basics only. They also organize clinics and of course concerts.

Hayden Music Inc. Roanoke, VA

A Frenchy in America No Responses »

Jun 232009

Hayden Music Inc
www.haydenmusic.net
4334 Electric Rd
Roanoke, VA

Hayden Music is a full line music store headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. They proudly serve the musical needs of Virginians since 1978. Specializing in piano sales, they have grown to be the largest piano dealer in western and sale Alhambra Guitars now!

Mr. Hayden and Mark, who also play and teach guitar, are extremely friendly and very active in the development of the store by having the musical community involved. The proof is:
not one chair was left empty for the Alhambra Guitar Clinics.

The crowd has been composed of guitarist (ugh!) all fine pickers, jazzmen and classical players. After I presented how guitars are constructed, and played some of the models I had with me, some guitarists came on stage to show their incredible talent! Let me tell you: I have been impressed by the quality and the artistry of all those persons. They sang, played and jammed until late, showing their passion for music but, also, how they loved the Alhambra Guitars.

I had to ask Alhambra to send me more guitars as a lot were sold!!!

They have the project to develop a guitar club and invite guitarists to perform once a month. Do not hesitate to contact them:
haydenmusic@aol.com
Therefore you will have a new place to play in town and fall in love with the Alhambra Guitars.
I’ll be back there in October, after New York tour, to present D’Addario Strings and Planet Waves accessories.

Why French Fries are not French? Ah, yeah… I forgot to talk about it… next time, ’cause it’s too late now and I have to wake-up early and head to Collinsville.

Cheers and if you recognize you in the pics, let me know!

Older Entries