Holy Friday April 22, 2011:
Every year, approximately 8 students come from different parts of the world to study classical guitar with me in person. I am one of the few guitar teachers in the world to teach Carlevaro technique both online and in person.
Today I received the background information of one of my International students that will be coming to Asunción for a 2 weeks intensive guitar course in June 2011. He stands out from the average guitar students for a series of  reason. Let alone that anyone traveling so far to receive guitar instruction is proof enough that he/she is not the average guitar student,  Gary has his very unique set of amazing life stories to make him really stand out from the crowd.  Gary is originally from Montana but moved to Kodiak Alaska where he has been living since 1958. In my mind, Alaska is the last frontier...  Gary enlisted in the US army right out of high school and managed to become a member of the elite force the renowned Green Berets. 

Before Gary, the closest I got to know a Green Beret was Sylvester Stallone in Rambo and John Tyree in "Dear John", therefore, you can only imagine my excitement to the idea that a real Green Beret and guitarist would soon be in Asunción. 
Gary survived 2 tours in Vietnam and was seriously injured in several occasions. He retired from the elite group in 1974.

Gary Enen

After a long time recovering from the war injuries, he managed to attend college and study atmospheric sciences and Meteorology. Upon graduation, Gary went to work for the Department of Commerce as a forecaster. He traveled extensively throughout Alaska and, finally, ended up back in Kodiak in 1984. He has loved the guitar  since he can remember and he already possesses 3 Bellucci Custom guitars. He decided to make the pilgrimage to Asuncion and boost his technique with my help. Needless to say, he will take Paraguayan warmth back with him to Alaska and he will be an honorary visitor to the land of Barrios.

Kodiak , Alaska

Wednesday April 26, 2011:
Some souls have the gift or talent to change another person's life for the best with a simple gesture or a simple action... I asked Gary (see previous entry to my blog dated April 22)  to mail me a picture from the time he served in Vietnam with the Green Berets and he did A LOT more than that. He got in his full uniform and snapped a picture with his latest Custom Bellucci guitar in his arms... Man, I am speechless. Thanks dear friend for making this day a super special day !! 

LIMITED EDITION SERIES

Sinker logs, are pulled from the bottom of lakes and rivers. Sometimes, scuba divers are needed to achieve the extraction.  Most of these logs are hundreds of years old (In one of the pictures above, you can see that the tree was cut with an hatchet). Due to a series of factors (The logs were too big and heavy to be pulled out of the rivers or the logs were caught by currents and were sucked to the bottom)  these logs were trapped by the muddy buttons of these water beds and this created like a time capsule where the wood was preserved in fantastic humidity conditions that made the wood season in a slow natural way during many centuries. Some of the logs are selected for musical instruments construction. The sound that these woods produce is unique and the grain has a beautiful coloration that changes according to the type of mud present in the water bed.

650 mm or 640 mm?
Keep the following rule at hand: If the distance between the tip of your thumb and the tip of your little finger is equal or less than 9 in. when fully stretched, use 640 mm
 

Tasmanian Blackwood, timber has a density of approximately 660 kg/m3. Very strong. may range in color from straw to grey-white with clear demarcation from the heartwood. The heartwood is golden to dark brown with chocolate growth rings. The timber is generally straight grained but may be wavy or interlocked. Black striping gives it a superb look and gets it closer to its African relative.

The 9 braces Hauser fan is the most thoroughly tested fan brace setup on the planet. It is the result of many years of experimenting. It is braced on Torres 4 fan brace design. The braces act as sound vibrations highways...they carry the vibration of each string to a specific spot on the soundboard. If you put your fingers on the soundboard as you play the 6th string for instance, you will feel the upper portion of the top vibrate with more power than the rest of the top.  You will be able to feel this vibrations with your fingertips all the way to the 4th strings. It is harder to feel the vibration caused by the treble strings. The variations on the 9 braces fan is enormous. Luthier taylor each fan to achieve a specific sound and match the instrument with the rest of the woods used in the construction. Above to the left is a 9 braces all Spruce fan. I often use a mixture of Cedar, Spruce and Mahogany to match different wood combinations Image to the right.

Radiused or flat fingerboard?
The radiused fingerboard has been around the acoustic and the electric guitar since day one. The same is true for most instruments of the Stringed family of instruments (violas, violins cellos, bass). Radiusing (image above) makes barre and left hand stopping A LOT easier. The only drawback is that you will NEVER want to play a  flat fingerboard after that. If you are having your custom guitar built, I am all pro radiusing the fingerboard.  The standard fingerboard is flat.