I talked with my friend Cris, he and his family had both Delta and Omnicron. Luckily only took him down 4 days, but the quar-RENT-Teen put him way behind. Basically one of his kids brought it home…
Cris not only is building me an 18 inch “Trap-Door” arched top guitar, but he also has “Red” an electric Jazz guitar that is like a Gibson L5 single pickup guitar that resembles a “George Gobel” model.
A while back before Covid I dropped Red off to get some work done, and to add some fingerboard inlays where there was none. Somehow the guitar got hijacked into a rebuild with a new neck because Cris wanted to update the peg head, then he wanted to refinish the body because he had tinted the clear finish red because the first owner was a fickle guy named Steve who was a PIA.
Cris tells me the tint kills the depth that is in the flamed maple underneath. So then Cris kinda says he should rebind the guitar since he’s going to refinish it. Then he might as well make a new updated bridge, tail piece and pick guard.
So this somehow snowballed into a project, somehow I basically be getting a new guitar, and other than the inlay work which I already paid for, all the rest of the work is free.
So in today’s discussion I mentioned Cris’s new website, and that if he wants he can go all the way to make my old guitar that was first built in 2004-2005 to match the current version.
So here is the website:
www.MirabellaGuitars.com.
Understand that Red is a very early Mirabella, that was built for fickle Steve. I first played Red at a guitar show and I expressed to Cris that I want one just like it. I even talked with Fickle Steve that I loved his guitar so much, and asked him if he minded if Cris clone his guitar for me.
So about a week later my friend Dave calls, and asks me if I still want that guitar.
“Well yes,” I say.
“You need to call Cris right now,” Dave tells me.
So basically I got the guitar because Fickle Steve still wanted more changes, and Cris at this point was exasperated and says it would be easier at this point to just sell the guitar to Cal and build you a new guitar.
So pretty much whenever I stopped in the shop I would bring out Red because a new guitar as it gets played in reveals depth, personality, and character. When I first played Red the guitar “Spoke to me,” and whenever I stopped by with Red guess who would also by chance stop by: Fickle Steve…
Steve of course would want to play Red, and it was kinda brutal the anguish. Again and again he would say, “I made a mistake and should of kept the guitar.”
At one point he asked me to sell it to him and I tore Red out of his hands.
Anyways Cris and Dave would laugh at the situation.
BTW Fickle Steve was a great guitar player (Jazz).
Also know that one day my friend Dave says he’s getting kinda pissed off because he is waiting for Cris to build him a guitar. He has envy because basically I only had to wait only a week, record time.
Then the subject come up about the 18 inch guitar known as “Jane” after Jane Mansfield the big blond bombshell. Jane is going to be a big blonde, meaning a maple guitar with a natural finish.
An 18 inch guitar is kinda big, and not everyone has the build to play one. Even though I’m a skinny bitch, I have narrow girly shoulders, but extra long arms for a big wingspan that is big enough for an 18 inch guitar.
Some wealthy Chinese guy commissioned an 18 inch Trap-Door, basically mine and his guitar are being tandem built together two at a time, but technically mine is the first.
Over 15 years ago Cris built the first Trap-Door guitar as a prototype and as a proof of principle. The guitars was a 17 inch Trap Door known as “Carmela” because it is a “brown-burst.” You can see Carmela on the website.
Anyways my commission jump started Cris’s career.The idea of side sound holes I believe is a John Monteleone idea, but Cris took the idea further by adding doors that can tune the bodies projection and resonance.
The story gets better. Because I waited so long, Cris has upgraded the wood. The neck blank, the back, and the side are all “Jimmy-wood” meaning wood from the Jimmy D’Aquisto estate. One iteration was to some Cellowood that had figure that resembled shattered glass, but the Jimmy-wood is long thin curl that has depth so that it resembles crashing surf.
Know that Jimmy D’Aquisto built 18 inch guitars with “wings” meaning added glued on sections to make up the width. Cris wanted to avoid wings, but wood from Jimmy’s estate suggests that this was wood Jimmy was saving for a special project.
The prices of some D’Aqusto guitars are mucho crazy. He only built 8XX guitars in his lifetime.
After D’Aquisto died the next “Man” was John Monteleone. Monteleone now is an old man, and it is obvious that Cris is the next “Man.”
Anyways, because I’m a smut queen, I saw that Cris was being “groomed” by John Monteleone and the high end guitar deal Larry Wexler to be the next “Man.”
So her I am, a patron of the arts who is making some history. I’m really proud of Cris, but waiting for guitars to be built is hard.
Another thing to consider is that with Monteleon there are two waiting lists, each list is 7 years. You wait on the first list to get the call, “Do you still want a guitar?” And at that time you have to put up a 50% deposit. Then it takes about 7 years to get the guitar you ordered.
Anyways at this level guitars are pretty safe investments because the supply is very limited. The problem though with Monteleone is that if he dies before your guitar is finished.
An interesting guitar on Cris’s website is the half built D’Aquisto round sound hole arch top that Cris was commissioned to complete.
Anyways more waiting…
Anyways I should be picking up a Telecastor that I dropped off with Cris before the pandemic. Also I’ll look at some bins to get more f the gear I want/need like those speakers I need for building out the Blackface Pro Reverb.
Cal
