I fell in love with this Somogyi and wanted to have it. I even tried selling my Ryan at one point to fund it. After some time, I realized that I couldn’t give up my Ryan since it’s the most versatile guitar I have. Till this day, the Somogyi still haunts me (those of you who have played one know what I’m talking about!)
Michael Watts, thanks for ruining my life and introducing me to Jason Kostal
see Michael’s inspiring thread here:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...ghlight=kostal
I saw Michael Watts thread on his new Kostal coming and I was so intrigued. A couple messages went back and forth between me and Michael and then a couple emails went back between me and Jason.
Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Jason emailed me saying he’d be in D.C. visiting his girlfriend’s (Catherine) parents during New Years and it ends up they were staying about 5-10 minutes where I live. Jason and Catherine came over to my house to discuss his builds and my playing styles. Here’s a picture of him playing my Omega.
Jason is finishing his 2 year apprenticeship program with Ervin Somogyi and basically said if you want a guitar that sounds like a Somogyi today, Somogyi can build you one and I can build you one. Of course he will throw in his own style and technique to the build, but I have no doubt in my mind that he will deliver!
I explained to Jason what I was looking for and he listened to my playing. I told him what I liked about each of my guitars and I also told him what I felt was missing from them. When he was playing my Omega, he let the notes sustain, paused, looked up and said, “I get it”.
I feel that Jason gets what I am looking for and he just gets it. Jason is an awesome player and I believe he studied with Hedges (my all time favorite!) He is well connected to the luthier community and speaks so humbly and highly of all other luthiers. Its neat to have a really good player build my next commissioned guitar and I trust that he can build me exactly what I’m looking for.
He said I NEED a Braz/German Modified D. and I believe him! So far he has sent me many pictures of possible braz choices and I have polls in the general acoustic forum here:
Part I:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...ghlight=kostal
Part II:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...ghlight=kostal
I will fly out to Somogyi’s shop early May to go through some more wood and tour the shop. I will also spend some more time with Jason and just talk more guitars! I am so excited for this build and it might be my last. But we’ll see!
My final guitar specs for this Kostal will be Brazilian/German with Wedge option. Jason received my deposit yesterday so we are good to go! Can’t wait and will keep you posted!