I have heard back from Rodrigo through Facebook. His old website is down and a new one is coming up. Any input from current owners/players would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
mandocatSanta Rosa, CA✭✭✭AJL XO, Eastman 905CE, PRS SE
Posts: 82
It seems to me that Rodrigo must only build about one D-Hole a year judging from the few that come up for sale. I got one by immediately responding as soon as I saw the ad on this forum . I love the guitar. It's very stable, looks beautiful, and sounds great with good volume. A guy who lives an hour away from me also has one and it is also great.
I hope you find one. I only know one Shopis, the one sitting in my little studio ... but it's just the coolest thing. It has this great vibe, old-world-Europe-meets-New-York. I love it! Solid wood, it likes a heavy hand.
And he actually makes a neck without a truss-rod, just the stiffening bars. How cool is that? It's a big neck, though.
klaatuNova ScotiaProdigyRodrigo Shopis D'Artagnan, 1950s Jacques Castelluccia
Posts: 1,665
Rodrigo builds his guitars to order, so how many of anything he produces is entirely up to his clients. They don't come up for sale very often because people generally don't want to part with them.
He built me a custom D hole in 2014 (photo attached), which is a one-of-a-kind (so far, and I hope it stays that way), and I absolutely love it. There's a full writeup on it here.
He built one last year for Ted Gottsegen which was perhaps even better, but I'm not letting this one go. Ted's is patterned after his long scale 12 fret Favino. Rodrigo really nailed the Favino sound on that one. He built himself a duplicate of it, which he will probably bring to Django in June again this year.
Benny
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
Comments
And he actually makes a neck without a truss-rod, just the stiffening bars. How cool is that? It's a big neck, though.
He built me a custom D hole in 2014 (photo attached), which is a one-of-a-kind (so far, and I hope it stays that way), and I absolutely love it. There's a full writeup on it here.
He built one last year for Ted Gottsegen which was perhaps even better, but I'm not letting this one go. Ted's is patterned after his long scale 12 fret Favino. Rodrigo really nailed the Favino sound on that one. He built himself a duplicate of it, which he will probably bring to Django in June again this year.
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
www.scoredog.tv