Mr Jorgenson's guitar here

Shemi

Wow, he can't be making a great deal of money on those for the price tag! Incredible. I find it fascinating how the laminated back and sides is more expensive, the antithesis of the flat top world.

Buco

Cost of living in Macedonia is much lower so that helps. Plus Risto wants to keep the prices lower by working luthier direct so he's not distributing to any dealers. Once in a while you'll see one pop up on a couple of websites but rarely. He'll occasionally put something on eBay but most of his work is direct customer orders.
Majority of his builds are guitars and Selmer models are his passion as he confesses on his website but he's done custom builds of electric violin, tambura (lute family instrument popular in Balkans)...
He's a very good instrument maker and yes one of the best price to quality ratio in Selmer instrument world. I played several of his guitars and all sounded wonderful. My guitar isn't the loudest in a jam, it's plenty loud though, but I love playing it at home which is rarely the case when borrow someone's guitar that projects really well, not that enjoyable to me as a player. There are exceptions of course but those were guitars at least twice the price of mine.
Very nice guy too.

Buco

Shemi wrote: »

What a great sounding guitar Buco, I'm guessing the two tone burst non cutaway is not common among gypsy style guitars? Does the guy make violins/violas as well? Looks like one still in the white in the back of the shot.

He built this one for a guy who plays Irish music but likes the sound of Selmer family guitars. Risto thinks non cutaway has a better bass response and Bill didn't need a cutaway. Yeah most likely that's he's violin build, he's adventurous.
First I saw this video, tracked down the guitar which turned out to be near me, became friends with Bill, the owner of this guitar. It's just as nice in person. Bill has since sold it but only to fund another build from Risto.

Buco

Here's one of Risto's guitars played by a highly competent guy:

Shemi

Lovely, Damjan is a killer guitar player in so many styles!

Buco

Ain't that the truth...

crookedpinky

Hi Shemi. mine is actually quite plain in comparison to some of Alex's work. My own guitar is a long scale D Hole with a soundport in the upper bout. Despie what some people say the soundport definitely changes the sound and actually increases the bass portion of the sound. This is obvious if I cover the soundport with my hand. The bass drops and so does the forward prjection of the guitar, not by much but it's noticeable. The added adavantage is that me, the player, hears a bit more of the guitar which is great in a jam setting. The guitar itself has solid American Walnut back and side and a walnut neck. The wood actually came from a tree which was growing in Kew Gardens here in the UK and, I believe, was blown down in a strom some years ago. It's a beautiful piece if wood and the story goes that Queen Victoria actually planted the tree, By coincidence the guitar was bought for me by my partner Janice while we were at the 2016 March Manouche Festival and the actual purchase was carried out in the Victoria Hotel. I call her "precious" a bit like Golum but I also think of her as "Victoria" given the story and the hotel connection.
She had a plastic scratchplate when I got her but I swapped that for burr walnut replacement. She is finished in a light french polish finish which is great soundwise - definitely lets the guitar breathe and sound a lot better than say a thick polyurethene finish found on so many, particulary Chinese, guitars. Without a doubt my guitars always draws admiring looks and comments particularly around the sound of it in jam sessions. In terms of actual sound I would say it's a lot fuller than some guitars I've heard but it's definitely more within the gypsy jazz sound than it is say a normal flattop but - depending how you play it - it can sound quite warm.
In terms of playability it's so easy and comfortable to play - like all of Alexs guitars I've played - and I just love it. As ever with Alex's guitars there's always a little geometric quirk, in the case of mine it's a little angular piece of contrasting wood at the heel. Hard to describe and very subtle but lovely.
The guitar featured in a GQ magazine article which can be found here
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/cool-new-products-april
And here's a link to Alexs website where the guiar features in the gallery.
https://www.alexbishopguitars.com/gallery?lightbox=dataItem-il2tx46r3

Apologies if that's a bit rambling and if there's anything else let me know
Alan

Shemi

@crookedpinky thank you so much for taking the time to write that, some really interesting observations there. I love stories like that about instruments and their provenance!

@stuart bought my ticket already! Looking forward to it immensely. I wanted to go last year but parental responsibilities got in the way. I'm coming alone and will probably know no one!lol I've never been to jam session so I'm looking forward to getting involved and gaining some confidence and experience, as well as the workshops. Will you be going?

crookedpinky

Seriously Shemi, March Manouche is by far the friendliest festival I've come across and I've been to Samois, Liberchies, Gossington and Grapelli Camp. Everyone attending will make you welcome. The only question is how will we know you ?

Shemi

I'm a friendly guy with a habit of talking to just about anybody in my near vicinity whether I know them or not!lol I've just changed my profile pic so I'm a bit more recognisable. I'm looking forward to finally meeting some of the folks on this board in person. This is pretty much my favourite place on the internet ☺️