FedEx estimated that my Peter Tsiorba blanca would arrive tomorrow, but it arrived today.
You would have to play a Tsiorba flamenco guitar to fully appreciate the excitement about them. They are incredibly easy to play and sound very "flamenco." Peter worked wonders on the setup of my '77 Ramirez a few months ago. It has been so easy and fun to play since that I haven't wanted to put it down. It is not only easy to play, it is an exceptional Ramirez that sounds much better than others I have tried. Even so, the Peter Tsiorba blanca I received today is better.
I wanted a traditional-looking flamenco guitar that sounds like a traditional flamenco guitar and that is what Peter sent me. The back and sides are Alaskan yellow cedar. The top is Englemann spruce. The rosette is from driftwood Peter picked up walking along the Oregon Coast. The scale length is 650mm. The pegs are ebony. The finish is French Polish.
I will be going to Idaho tomorrow and don't have time to record an audio clip tonight, but I promise to do that early next week. However, I did take some photos.
The artistry of Peter never ceases to amaze me. This guitar appears plain at first glance, but something kept me looking. I am not a fan of this kind of rosette, but this one certainly is a special work of art. It took me awhile to realize the treble side of the fingerboard by the rosette is extended further on that side. Also it appears the rosette is wider on the treble side, but it may be the angle of the photo and my eyes. In all the guitars I have seen of Peters it seems he always has done something subtle to make a statement that this is a special handmade one of a kind work of art. Anxious to hear the sound clips. I will say your Ramirez is very exceptional. I have never owned a Ramirez, mainly because I never found one I liked. I have played on several over the years, but yours far exceeded any others I had played on and that was before Peter fixed it.
Manos Lentas wrote:It took me awhile to realize the treble side of the fingerboard by the rosette is extended further on that side. Also it appears the rosette is wider on the treble side, but it may be the angle of the photo and my eyes.
The fingerboard does extend further on the treble side. However, the apparent rosette asymmetry is an illusion caused by the angle at which the photos were taken. They were taken quickly at night using the flash lamp built-in to a hand-held Canon SD550 camera. With the light source so close to the camera lens it is necessary to photograph from unusual angles to avoid bright light reflections back into the lens. I will take some pictures in natural light to avoid that problem after I return from Idaho.
I should add that wood colors in the photos taken with the flash camera appear considerably darker and more highly saturated than they appear to the human eye. The guitar box is actually very pale compared to the brownish-yellow in the photos. The photos also exaggerate wood-grain effects. For example, in the photo I posted directly above it looks like the left-hand side of the guitar top is darker and that its color is more highly saturated than on the right-hand side. Compare that photo to the next photo above and the reverse appears to be true.
The photos don't due justice to the guitar, but traditional flamenco guitars are rather plain-looking. Except for the unique rosette, this guitar looks similar to the guitars used by great artists of the past. More importantly to me, it sounds like guitars they used. Nearly all the satisfaction I get from a guitar comes from the music I am able to create with it. Even when I play for others at a party now and then I doubt that anyone I play for cares much about the appearance of my guitars, compared to the music I make with them. Lots of guitar players have flashy-looking guitars, but not many of them make music with those guitars like the music that can be made with this guitar.
I'd very much like to "meet" your new Tsiorba. I have a new Walker you haven't seen yet, either. With Spring coming we should plan to get together again.
Bob wrote: Lots of guitar players have flashy-looking guitars, but not many of them make music with those guitars like the music that can be made with this guitar.
-Bob
I think this guitar has simple elegance and class. As you pointed out for a player the most important thing is the playability and sound. I would rather put my money in better tone woods than inlays and cravings. Anxious to hear the sound clips.
I recorded some audio samples earlier today and, as explained in other posts, discovered that I couldn't upload them due to an new Internet Explorer incompatibility. That problem has been fixed, but now it is midnight and I am headed to bed. I will post them tomorrow.
Peter pays lots of attention to fret alignment which makes it possible to have extremely low action. The spacing between the 6th string and the 12th fret on my new blanca is less than 2mm. That makes the guitar exceptionally easy to play. However, my other guitars were made in the '60's and 70's when it was customary to have 54mm neck widths. The necks of newer guitars are generally 52mm. Peter will make you a guitar with whatever neck width you want, but my new Tsiorba blanca neck is 52mm and it is surprising to me how much I notice that 2mm difference. It will take awhile for my fingers to get used to the strings being closer together, so I can pick and hold-down the right ones more often.
The audio samples below were quickly recorded yesterday. They are intended to demonstrate the sound of the guitar rather than my playing ability (or lack thereof). I was basically just messing around and trying things as I might if we were doing this in person and just played whatever came to mind without any preplanning or editing, so the result, in keeping with true flamenco tradition, is rather raw.
Unfortunately, I don't have one of the nifty Zoom H2 digital handheld recorders that Sam has or the Tascam DR-1 portable recorder that Peter has. I have some old broadcast-quality audio recording equipment, but it is large, in storage, and lots of trouble to setup, so I made these recordings using the monaural voice recorder that is built into my iAudio X5L audio player. Monaural recordings don't have the apparent presence of stereo recordings and both low and high frequencies are purposely attenuated to reduce background noise that is outside the frequency range of the human voice. Consequently, these recordings do not sound as good as the guitar sounds live, but they will provide some idea of the guitar sound quality. Of course, to really hear what it is capable of I would not only need to use better recording equipment, but also have Thomas Jimenez, Richard Black (Quijote), or someone else who actually knows how to play flamenco come here to demonstrate it.
Computer loudspeakers are notoriously terrible. If you have a set of high-quality earphones available, they are apt to provide more faithful reproduction.
The first recording is a very short bit of Peteneras without a cejilla, so you can hear what the guitar sounds like open. The other recordings where made with various cejilla positions.
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