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Today's Birthdays
New Marin guitar
Twang
New
Today was one of those days that for most of us comes all to rarely and much less than Christmas.
A day of staring out the window, never settling to do anything, not eating and pacing up and down checking the UPS tracking every 2 seconds looking in vain for any more info than the " out for delivery" and "scheduled today" message you have been looking at none stop since two in the morning when customs was cleared. In truth, barely a day has gone by in the last 6 months, 1 year, 2 years since you placed the order, that you haven't dreamed of today arriving.
Today is a new guitar day.
For me today, it was a new Cedar top Olivier Marin. UPS agonisingly turned up late afternoon and dumped a battered Thomann box on my doorstep and scooted off before I was able to give them Covid.
So I thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences of one day of owning this guitar cos it's the kind of thing I would want to read on this forum. I'll admit I have always had an interest in these guitars that is fed by a huge dose of nostalgia. I first got into gypsy jazz in the early noughties when anybody who's anybody was playing a Marin. He was in the ascendancy, riding the great wave of fashion that is perhaps currently held by other great luthiers.
Why else did I choose a Marin? I have only ever played one once. I attended a workshop 2 years ago taught by Harry Diplock who was playing a cedar top Marin. At the end of the session a dialogue between him and myself ensued that went like this:
Me: Can I play your guitar please?
Harry: Sure
(me playing the guitar)
Me: You have to sell me this guitar
Harry: No
So I opened the box.
Luthiers make me smile. They all have their quierky ways that make you think "really? It's sporting the finest hardware and woods money can buy and he's sent me it in a gig bag?" Greg Smallman, perhaps the most famous modern day classical guitar luthier, lived in a rain forest with no phone and built 9 guitars a year. Each guitar cost in excess of £25000 and he had to close his waiting list when it got to 25 years waiting time. He always fitted £25 schaller tuners on his guitars (and used blue tack to balsa wood to brace the top). He had a point though. I have owned these tuners and never had a problem whereas I have had no less than 3 top end, super duper hand made boutique tuners over the years that were useless. The moral being that throwing money at guitars is often not the answer. A cheap guitar doesn’t know it’s supposed to sound cheap and an expensive guitar doesn’t know it’s supposed to sound expensive. Guitars have a mind and will of their own.
So I pulled out the guitar and it looks fab and smells of varnish. It's not particularly heavy ( I've heard some say that they are) but it is bigger. I can't get it in my Hiscox Gypsy guitar case so I'll have to get the case they make for a Gibson J200 wow!
Ok so I wouldn't have posted this review unless I could say this. It sounds brilliant. It's loud and I've heard people say that they aren't particularly loud. Well it is. The balance and sustain are fab, it's punchy and growly and, best of all, the E an B are fatter sounding than "The Wife".
The Wife is my long standing, long suffering Dupont that I judge all other guitars by. She usually wins and banishes lesser guitars with the contempt they deserve.
Not today. Today she is sweating but she needn't worry, I'll never divorce her.
This is the second top end boutique gypsy guitar I have bought. The first ending in utter disappointment. To be fair there were only two things I didn't like about that guitar: How it felt to play and how it sounded.
So a very happy ending to this story cos I love this guitar. I could of gone on about other stuff like intonation and woods etc but all that stuff gets a bit boring, I think, and doesn't tell you anything much about the guitar. It was a long wait cos Olivier was in Lockdown for much of the time since I placed the order.
I think I'll call her "Pandora" . No prizes for guessing why.
and 1 other.
Comments
I'm only bummed because that SRV Strat is going to stay unsold now.
No it’s ok Buco. We’re gonna do a trade with “the wife” 😁😂
I love a story with a happy ending!
Even though it ends with the protagonist cheating on his wife, and the suggestion of future wifeswapping!
Congratulations!
Will
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
How'bout some pictures? Great intro to your new Marin, enjoyed reading that.
Here you go, Olivier took these to show me before it shipped (just saying in case you thought I owned a guitar workshop )😂
Beautiful!
I was there (his workshop in Granada). He had me try out a few new guitars -- they didn't all sound the same. He had a bowl with various types of picks in it to choose from. I had only been playing a ukulele for two weeks, so my hands weren't ready for them, but it was fun, and he was very gracious!
Didn't Gonzalo Bergara play a Marin for a while?
He sure did. The tone of that guitar defined him musically for me, along with his playing. When he moved from it (he actually offered it for sale here on the forum, the price I think was reasonable too) it was still his playing but for me, I was missing the tone of his Marin.
You're one lucky guy @Twang that's one heck of a beauty.
Buco, I totally agree about Gonzalo's tone with his Marin. It was perfect for him. On the other hand when Adrien Moignard retired his Marin for his Favino he sounded better all around. That Favino in his hands is just the best. He told me he bought a late 40's selmer and I found some video of him playing that. Not near as good sounding IMO as his favino.