Cheap Gold
It's amazing what $100 will get you.
It's amazing what $100 will get you.I had been looking at guitars at all different price levels and actually had already purchased my Tanglewood already when the shop I used to frequent told me about a batch lot that they had picked up at a factory rejects auction in China. Two guitars were worth looking at.
Both had solid tops and laminate sides/back and were priced fairly well, but not really that much lower than normal retail. Further, the Valencia was mahogany - a wood I usually don't like since it is far too bright for my taste and usually sounds plasticky. The finish was satin over raw, unfilled wood and quite rough. It would catch on long-sleeved shirts and just didn't look very nice. But look as I might, I could not find a defect in it anywhere, so I figured it was an OK guitar at a decent price that might be suitable to take outside or as a beater guitar.
I preferred the sound of the cedar and the price was 2/3 that of the Valencia, so it was clearly the better deal, but I decided to persuade my friend to buy it and I bought the Valencia. I asked nicely and for a few extra bucks, I got an old used bone saddle from the shop.
Too bright? Yep. Plasticky? Yep. Maybe the bone saddle would fix it.
So I took it home and sanded down the saddle. I was thinking about taking a bit of sandpaper to the surface to bring down some of the sharp bits when I had an idea. I grabbed a few vitamin E capsules and rubbed them into the surface with my hands. To my tremendous surprise, that dull, lifeless satin finish revealed a brilliant flame pattern in the wood of the sides and back when the oil brought up a sheen*. Ugly Duckling indeed!
A few hours later and the saddle was in place to reveal another transformation. The sound went from plasticky to crisp. The sustain suddenly woke up and the tone became full and balanced. As the oil hardened, the sound just kept getting better and better.
Not long after, I stumbled upon a pack of Hannabach Gold strings. They were the most expensive strings in the store - at almost a quarter what I paid for the guitar - and knowing that classical strings usually last a long time, I figured it would be worth it.
And indeed they were. The Golds brought something the guitar had been missing. Warmth. And this was no ordinary warmth. This was warmth like butter melting on homemade pancakes on a sleepy, sunny Sunday morning, cinnamon on freshly baked banana bread and thick wool sweaters while sipping mulled apple cider around a crackling fireplace on a late autumn evening.
I used this guitar in my attempt to do what I felt was impossible. I had been looking for an extra guitar at the time because I was so taken by the Koyunbaba Suite and so overwhelmed by the skill required that I felt that in a million years, I could never, ever learn it and play it. Impossible!
Truthfully, I had not actually learned to play a single song or piece yet, even on my folk guitar. Just messing around with chords and stuff.
It was on again and off again with the Koyunbaba, but slowly and surely, as time moves along, I have learned the first three movements and have even gained such familiarity that I can play most of it with my eyes closed. Each time playing has become a chance to tell a story, not just "play a song". Repeating sections are played as "the bleating of a sheep" or "the echo of the voice of a bleating sheep from other nearby mountains", or "the sound of a voice in a memory both cherished and painful". Progress through the movements represents a journey from memory to angst to being overwhelmed and finally a descent into madness and a leap from a cliff into a few moments of final reflection.
You know, depending on my mood at the time...
The Valencia literally sits at my right hand, closest to me when I sit at my computer, where I spend much of my spare time and where I spend most of my guitar practicing time. It is far, far cheaper than any other instrument I own, yet it has the strongest emotional connection, with a rich, full sound, a fantastic journey from tepid to epic and the ability to literally bring me to tears as I play one of the most engaging pieces of guitar music ever written.
*Curious thing. In researching this, I discovered that the model was a CG Ltd 2. Which was a $140 guitar with laminated curly koa sides and back. So that explains the figure on the sides. That makes it something like the guitar equivalent of a 'gourmet' burger at MacDonalds... 30% off! It might not be top shelf, but it's filling and still manages to taste pretty good.
