The Story of a Tom Sands Signature Guitar - Page 6

amohr · #76 02-26-2019, 06:09 PM

Another treasure of a creation, I am so happy to have found this forum, so many Great artists (builders and musicians) Thanks for posting

ianLP59 · #77 02-27-2019, 03:44 AM

Many congrats Will on a stunning looking and, I'm guessing, sounding instrument.

Had a recent conversation with Tom concerning an upcoming build using a rather special set of mahogany. I'm guessing that it will eventually evolve into another build thread at some point.

Very much looking forward to hearing something with this guitar Will...

Cheers,

Ian

Will McNicol · #78 03-04-2019, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Congrats, that is an amazingly beautiful guitar. My good friend, luthier Ben Wilborn, built a guitar out of a very unique set of BRW which also looked like the storm bands across Jupiter, but he named it the "Jupitar" LOL. Congrats again.

Ah fantastic - and he beat me to the punny name! Wish I'd thought of that... =P Thanks ever so much for following the build =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickRundall

That is an absolute stunner of a guitar Will, and thanks for letting us see the design and build process in such detail and with such lovely photos. I've only recently discovered your guitar playing through various demo videos whist perving on high end guitar porn! I'm really blown away by your playing, and have you album Dragonflies, Frogs and Bumblebees on heavy rotation. Bravo! Top work mate! Same to Mr Sands. Amazing.

Hi Nick - that's my pleasure, and my thanks to you for reading and engaging! She certainly is a stunner, I'm a lucky chap indeed! So happy to hear you've been enjoying my playing as well, thanks enormously for the kind words.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveh

Been there, done that, got the badge, have the tee-shirt.

Cheers,
Steve

=)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfram

That's utterly stunning Will - you must be in Heaven!!

Cheers,
David

Hi David - I certainly am! What a pleasure. Hope to see you again before too long!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianLP59

Many congrats Will on a stunning looking and, I'm guessing, sounding instrument.

Had a recent conversation with Tom concerning an upcoming build using a rather special set of mahogany. I'm guessing that it will eventually evolve into another build thread at some point.

Very much looking forward to hearing something with this guitar Will...

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Ian, thanks kindly. Very excited to see what happens with your own build with Tom....!

Will McNicol · #79 03-04-2019, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amohr

Another treasure of a creation, I am so happy to have found this forum, so many Great artists (builders and musicians) Thanks for posting

Thanks very much, and thanks for reading along!

Will McNicol · #80 03-04-2019, 08:16 AM

So, we went out and recorded a video in a rather beautiful place called Broughton Hall the day after I played Jupiter for the first time. Have a listen, I hope you enjoy:

https://youtu.be/IEXr0l8bFLI

Would of course, as ever, be lovely to hear your thoughts. Amazing, as well, how after playing the HELL out of it for the last week or so, how much its opened up as well. It's an exciting thing to witness, and such fun, particularly from a composition point of view, to play around with all these new tones!

With thanks,

Will

Nemoman · #81 03-04-2019, 10:53 AM

That's simply beautiful, Will--the guitar and the video.

Kudos to you and Tom!

Vaillant75 · #82 03-04-2019, 01:30 PM

Congratulations Will, stunning guitar. And you have quite the chops to make her shine!

Cheers,
Tom

TomB'sox · #83 03-04-2019, 03:49 PM

Great sound on that guitar Will. Wonderfully beautiful song as well, now as to the socks, we may need to talk about those!!!

SJ VanSandt · #84 03-04-2019, 04:48 PM

Socks? I thought they were boots! I'm disappointed.

Beautiful playing on a gorgeous guitar. Thanks for sharing with us, Will.

Will McNicol · #85 03-09-2019, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemoman

That's simply beautiful, Will--the guitar and the video.

Kudos to you and Tom!

Thanks very much indeed - as you can imagine, I've been playing the thing non-stop!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vaillant75

Congratulations Will, stunning guitar. And you have quite the chops to make her shine!

Cheers,
Tom

Ah ha - thanks Tom kindly. This guitar is already suggesting new things to me, which, as a composer, is amazing! =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Great sound on that guitar Will. Wonderfully beautiful song as well, now as to the socks, we may need to talk about those!!!

Thanks very much! And yes, those socks... become a bit of a thing of mine over the years... and now I don't have to buy socks any more as people give them to e as gifts, which is a rather handy perk! =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SJ VanSandt

Socks? I thought they were boots! I'm disappointed.

Beautiful playing on a gorgeous guitar. Thanks for sharing with us, Will.

Ah ha - now boots that colour would be quite something! Thanks very much for the kind words =)

gitarro · #86 03-09-2019, 07:23 PM

That is a tone that is unusual for a steel string - it sounded almost like a classical guitar. It is different from the other clips of sands guitars that i have heard. Was that tonal profile what u were aiming for?

I wonder if the black limba helped a lot to create that tone.

Whatever the case it is a beautiful song played superbly!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will McNicol

So, we went out and recorded a video in a rather beautiful place called Broughton Hall the day after I played Jupiter for the first time. Have a listen, I hope you enjoy:

https://youtu.be/IEXr0l8bFLI

Would of course, as ever, be lovely to hear your thoughts. Amazing, as well, how after playing the HELL out of it for the last week or so, how much its opened up as well. It's an exciting thing to witness, and such fun, particularly from a composition point of view, to play around with all these new tones!

With thanks,

Will

usb_chord · #87 03-09-2019, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gitarro

That is a tone that is unusual for a steel string - it sounded almost like a classical guitar. It is different from the other clips of sands guitars that i have heard. Was that tonal profile what u were aiming for?

I wonder if the black limba helped a lot to create that tone.

Whatever the case it is a beautiful song played superbly!

I wonder if a lot of that is to do with Will's impeccable technique. I've heard a similar tone from many of Will's performances on guitars made by many other great builders. This is a fantastic guitar...and an equally fantastic player/composer!

Marcus Wong · #88 03-10-2019, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gitarro

That is a tone that is unusual for a steel string - it sounded almost like a classical guitar. It is different from the other clips of sands guitars that i have heard. Was that tonal profile what u were aiming for?

I wonder if the black limba helped a lot to create that tone.

Whatever the case it is a beautiful song played superbly!

Funny you mentioned this. This was exactly what I was telling a friend yesterday. Except, I find that almost all of his clips have a very classical vibe to it. I will definitely share my personal experience of how a Tom Sands sounds like when I get my paws on it... next month?

steveh · #89 03-10-2019, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by usb_chord

I wonder if a lot of that is to do with Will's impeccable technique.

I'm sure I've seen far more rest strokes, for example, in Will's playing than most steel-string players and his right hand string address has more than a hint of nylon about it. Nylons (even great ones) are excruciating if you don't address the string properly and I'm guessing Will has that technique in his genetic makeup by now. Clive Carroll is someone else whose nylon playing shows up via impeccable steel-string technique.

Can you confirm or refute Will?

Cheers,
Steve

Will McNicol · #90 03-11-2019, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gitarro

That is a tone that is unusual for a steel string - it sounded almost like a classical guitar. It is different from the other clips of sands guitars that i have heard. Was that tonal profile what u were aiming for?

I wonder if the black limba helped a lot to create that tone.

Whatever the case it is a beautiful song played superbly!

I'm glad that came across - it's precisely that crossover that I was looking for. Also something Tom was so aware of, having seen me play so much over the past 18 months. If I could get the meat of nylon strings with the sustain of steel, then happy days, and this guitar delivers that for me. Such fun to play. I'm so looking forward to recording some of my classical repertoire on it actually. Thanks for the kind words =)

Quote:

Originally Posted by usb_chord

I wonder if a lot of that is to do with Will's impeccable technique. I've heard a similar tone from many of Will's performances on guitars made by many other great builders. This is a fantastic guitar...and an equally fantastic player/composer!

Thanks very much! I don't know about impeccable though... I'm still practicing! But yes, the classical training is definitely something that has dominated my right hand technique, and I love exploring this on steel strings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Wong

Funny you mentioned this. This was exactly what I was telling a friend yesterday. Except, I find that almost all of his clips have a very classical vibe to it. I will definitely share my personal experience of how a Tom Sands sounds like when I get my paws on it... next month?

Bang on the money there, Marcus =) So excited to see your Sands completed! Not long now! =D

Quote:

Originally Posted by steveh

I'm sure I've seen far more rest strokes, for example, in Will's playing than most steel-string players and his right hand string address has more than a hint of nylon about it. Nylons (even great ones) are excruciating if you don't address the string properly and I'm guessing Will has that technique in his genetic makeup by now. Clive Carroll is someone else whose nylon playing shows up via impeccable steel-string technique.

Can you confirm or refute Will?

Cheers,
Steve

Hi Steve, nice that you picked up on the rest stroke thing. It's funny - I learnt that in my first ever lesson at age 6, but is so often underused on steel strings. I think it's a wonderful technique on steel strings - really gives such depth of tone. Tone control, angle of attack, and all those areas are things I consider all the time, and definitely something that was drilled when I was in my die-hard classical days!

All the best, and thanks all for your comments - really interesting stuff to talk about =)

Will