Autumn Leaves (on a Mark Hatcher all mahogany guitar)

[ukejon]

This instrumental version is inspired by the vocal stylings of the late and very great Eva Cassidy. Played here on a new custom Mark Hatcher "Josie" model guitar--all mahogany jumbo, fanned frets, wedge shaped body:



Thanks for listening.

[rick-slo]

Sounds good. Thanks for sharing. Any downside to fan frets playing up the neck?

[ukejon]

Not at all....very natural and intuitive. You really don't even notice they are angled.

[Carmel Cedar]

Beautiful guitar, and great playing. Love the sweet tone of the mahogany. Looks like a winner of a guitar, well built and designed!

How does it complement your other Hatcher? Would be awesome to hear the same piece played with the other...

[ukejon]

That's a great question, certainly one that Mark and I talked a lot about during the build. The goal was a guitar with the classic Hatcher responsiveness and clear tone, but that nevertheless differed in overall sound from the Greta.

To use a car analogy, Greta behaves very much like a fine-tuned sports car. The sounds absolutely jumps from the soundboard with a great deal of tonal variation and complicated overtones. It is a very lively and tonally active guitar. In contrast, the new all mahogany Josie is more like a high end luxury car, offering as it were a smoother ride. The guitar is still very responsive but in a calmer way, with much more balance across the entire fretboard and a rounder sound. I guess it has more fundamentals tonally but not in a woody, Gibson/blues guitar way--you still very much have a sense that it has a rather modern voicing (heard for example in the up-the-neck Cmaj7 at the very end of this recording).

I'm now in the process of figuring out if certain songs in my repertoire--all instrumentals--are better on one than the other. Seems to my ear that the more traditional songs with the more conventional chords (Dylan, Lightfoot, the simpler Tommy Emmanuel songs, all the good old cowboy songs, and even many James Taylor or Jackson Brown songs) will be more at home on the Josie, while the more adventurous contemporary sounding instrumentals with more complex chords/voicings and the need for more sustain (the more complex Tommy songs, Andy McKee, Agustin Amigo and the like) will sound a bit better on the Greta. But probably there will be a great deal of experimentation and mixing-and-matching since both sound pretty wonderful.

[Glennwillow]

Jon, that was really lovely!

I am very familiar with that Eva Cassidy arrangement; I could almost hear her amazing voice in there.

Your playing is so very clean, and you tone is very solid; no tinny-ness anywhere. Awesome rendition of a beautiful song. And that guitar sounds great and your recording was just right -- just the right amount of reverb to add but not get in the way.

Just excellent!

- Glenn

[Song]

Fantastic! Thanks!

[T Texas]

beautimous!...

[cigarfan]

Beautiful rendition Jon. Nicely done. Glad to see your new Josie in your hands too! I know there was much anticipation.

[Mr. Paul]

Most excellent.

[J.R. Rogers]

Wow - the new Hatcher sounds pretty wonderful in addition to your playing. Congrats on that beauty.

JR

[jimmy bookout]

Jon,
That was just lovely. In regards to Eva Cassidy, there's not a week that goes by that I don't listen to her. So sad to lose someone of such immense talent.
Thanks for doing this.

Jimmy

[ukejon]

The kind words are much appreciated.

[Mark Hatcher]

I listened to the sound sample you did again today ukejon and I have to say that last closing chord does a wonderful job showing exactly what this guitar is all about! That was a really good choice and very well played. I look forward to see where you go with this instrument!

Mark