Can anyone ID this Dell Arte?

klaatu

This is one of their older guitars, I believe it was built in the San Diego shop. I'm interested in knowing what model it is.

CalebFSU

Not to be captain Obcious but, we're sure it's not an anouman or a sweet chorus? and it is Post Sellviano(sp?) yes???

Josh Hegg

From the looks of it it looks like a Sweet Chorus. The rosette does not look like an Anouman.

Cheers,
Josh

Jack

Maybe Alain could ID it for you (and give you it's history) if you write him with the serial #.

klaatu

Thanks - I sent Alain an e-mail to see what he can tell me about it.

B25Gib

......Klaatu -
...................I see your quote about wrong notes being played with conviction! I just finished reading a book titled, "Kind of Blue", the making of the Miles Davis masterpiece in 1959. Charlie Parker was notorius for not making rehersals and just going for it on stage and he expected a still developing tone and style by Miles to follow suit. Miles said "I wanted to quit every night because Bird would leave me onstage!" So Max (Roach) would get done with his solo and I'd say "Give me one bar and two beats"...but Bird would make you play---I mean you would have to play or else die up there. Every night I'd be saying "Goddam!"
.....Years later, Miles would relate to composer David Amram some advice from Parker that helped him through the worst moments. Amram recalls: He said, "Bird told me, when I was young, and just getting out of Juillard, that if you play something that seems to be wrong, play it again, then play the same thing a third time. Then Bird gave a great smile and said, "Then they'll think that you meant it."
.....Parker's sink-or-swim strategy meshed well with Miles's philosophy of fear-as-challenge. Amram adds: Miles was quoted later on as saying. "There are no wrong notes in jazz." What he obviously meant was that you could take one particular thing that might sound incorrect or jarring, and build something beautiful. He felt that that was a way of improvising to get out of what seems to be a terrible situation was a challenge. "To me, it's all like a high-wire act," he said and moved his arms like a bird, just for a minute.
.......It's a great read by the way!

Rocky

klaatu

Great quote, Rocky. I'll have to look for that book.

Something my sister taught me long ago - if you make a mistake on stage, just play right through it as though that's exactly how you meant to play. Hardly anyone in the audience will notice. You see performers all the time who telegraph their mistakes by making faces or shaking their heads in disgust, as if they feel they have to acknowledge publicly their mistakes - worst thing you can do!

I have a friend who took up guitar late in life after many years as an accomplished jazz trumpeter. He has come quite a long way and can play lovely lines when he's noodling on his own. As soon as it's his turn to solo in a live situation, you can see the wheels start to turn, fretting over what mode of which scale to play over a particular chord and worrying about getting a wrong note in there, and the lovely lines turn into choppy, disjointed strings of notes. And of course every mistake is accompanied by a shake of the head and a pursing of the lips.

Someone quoted Willie Nelson as saying that Django never played a wrong note. That may or may not be true, but he played with such audacity and spirit that you really can't tell.

klaatu

Back to the Dell Arte -
I've never seen a tailpiece like that on a Dell Arte, no wood insert. Was that standard at one time, or is it possibly a replacement?

pmh425

klaatu wrote:

Back to the Dell Arte -
I've never seen a tailpiece like that on a Dell Arte, no wood insert. Was that standard at one time, or is it possibly a replacement?

George Gruhn has a Minor Swing with the same tailpiece.


http://www.gruhn.com/photo/AM5751.jpg

pmh425

Josh Hegg wrote:

From the looks of it it looks like a Sweet Chorus. The rosette does not look like an Anouman.

Cheers,
Josh

My Sweet Chorus has a very similar rosette

klaatu

Hi everyone -

Thanks for all the responses. I did write to ****, and he advised me that is it indeed a Sweet Chorus, built in 1999 in the Santee CA shop.

Re the tailpiece, he says that it "is a Billardi, the same type that Jacques Favino installed on his guitars for decades. Everybody was drawing from the same old stock and this tailpiece went out of stock around 2000."