Wingert Model E - Brazilian RW / German spruce, giant neck

[nobo]

Kathy Wingert built this beautiful Model E (silky German spruce over a fabulous set of Brazilian rosewood) for friend of mine, Callum, around 11 years ago.

Callum was a wonderful person – and musician. He was a critical thinker, and extended that approach to his assessment of guitars – he was notoriously hard to please in that regard! This, instrument, however, he was besotted with. It truly was his dream guitar. And the story of how it ended up in his gigantic hands* fills me with wonderful feelings about Kathy.

Callum had heard, from across a room, a guitar being played. Without knowing what it was, he said “That’s it! That’s the sound I’ve been looking for my whole life”. That particular Wingert didn’t work for him on account of it having a "normal" neck. (*At maybe 6’3”, Callum appeared to weigh about 7 stones; we joked that about 90% of his body weight was in those huge hands!). Word got back to Kathy, who was flattered and keen to make his dream come true. Perhaps fearing he may not have all that long to enjoy a guitar she might build him, she bumped Callum to the front of what was otherwise a waiting list of several years. Kathy built him an instrument identical to the one he had fallen for the sound of – right down to a sister set of Braz (I seem to remember a story of it being from 1812 or something!) - the only difference being the monstrous 51.5mm odd nut width, and 62.5mm string spacing at the bridge (classical proportions and beyond!). She flew over to the UK, and hand delivered it to Callum at an RMMGA gathering.







As well having the pleasure of hearing it in Callum’s hands, and playing it myself, on numerous occasions, I also have fond memories of the hearing the dulcet, rich, dark chocolately tones of this instrument when the masterful Clive Carroll put it through its paces at few years back at one of the RMMGA UK gatherings (2009 I think): having played a 2+ hour gig, Clive retired to the kitchen where he played for another 6 or so hours straight until sunrise!



Sadly, Callum passed away a few years ago. I dared not asked what had happened to his guitar, though I must confess to wondering about it a fair bit, as I was similarly infatuated with it! Having spied a Wingert or two at Ian's annual guitar gathering in 2018, I was chatting to their owner, Chris Stern, and told him the story of Callum’s guitar. It turned out Chris knew its whereabouts, as he now owned it! What's more, he was happy to reunite me with it.

A month or so later, when Chris was in London, he kindly brought the guitar with him and stopped over for dinner.

Meeting that guitar again – replete with the faint whiff of Callum’s roll-ups – brought tears to my eyes. And a song popped out that very evening, which I’ve dedicated to Callum’s memory. (I might have live video of an early version of it somewhere – I’ll have a look – but I really must record it properly!).

Happily, Chris was willing to let the reunion continue … on a permanent basis! He left the guitar with me to chew over whether I wanted to buy it. To be honest, there wasn't a question in my mind about that; merely the need for authorisation from credit control!

I’m massively grateful to Chris for his being willing (somewhat reluctantly) to part with it (and my wife, as always, for sanctioning the purchase!).

It’s a beautiful looking, playing and sounding instrument, full of memories and soul. It's hugely sentimental for me. And I love the wonderfully round, phat trebles, and huge neck (which became the template for my Sands Model L baritone’s neck).

Here’s a sample of it in action (not yet properly edited, mixed or mastered, but it’ll give you the flavour of the tone), on a tune I wrote 15 years ago called Yumi (tuned CGCGCD - which the guitar seems to love): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KfH...ew?usp=sharing Enjoy!

[Treenewt]

THAT was a wonderful story! Thank you so much for sharing with us. This made my day.

And the sound clip is marvelous!

[nobo]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

THAT was a wonderful story! Thank you so much for sharing with us. This made my day.

And the sound clip is marvelous!

Great to hear that! You're most welcome! Can't say how delighted I am to be this wonderful instrument's custodian - but it made more than my day!

Glad you enjoyed the sound clip. Once polished, I'm planning to put that tune on my forthcoming album (which has been an embarrassingly long time coming... But it's getting there, slowly...!)

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by nobo

Great to hear that! You're most welcome! Can't say how delighted I am to be this wonderful instrument's custodian - but it made more than my day!

Glad you enjoyed the sound clip. Once polished, I'm planning to put that tune on my forthcoming album (which has been an embarrassingly long time coming... But it's getting there, slowly...!)

Dan, I was just perusing your website hoping you would have an album coming out! Can't wait to hear it!

[colins]

Congratulations Dan. Anyone who has a Wingert E is very fortunate – great guitars from a really nice person.

[MThomson]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing your story

[SprintBob]

Great story and just a wonderful sound clip. The tone of that guitar is delicious in the most literal sense.

[mountainguitar]

Thank you!!! For sharing the wonderful story of this great instrument and the sound clip. What a gorgeous sound this special Wingert E makes. And your great playing brings that sound alive. In my mind and heart, this is the epitome of what great acoustic guitar music sounds like!

Congratulations!

beth

[TomB'sox]

Fantastic story and wonderful sound clip. The dynamics of your playing in that clip were tremendous of course aided by the sustain and beautiful tone of that fantastic guitar!

Thank you for sharing.

[Goodallboy]

Now that's a bog, bold, sonorous guitar!

Your fortunate to have had the relationship, the story, and now the guitar.

Enjoy that masterpiece!

[SColumbusSt]

Great story, really enjoyed it.

Keith

[M Sarad]

I finally headphones. What a luscious sound.

[Guitars44me]

What a lovely story, and what a BEAUTIFUL RECORDING!

Stunning SOUND. Please tell us the recording technology!

Thanks for sharing, and have FUN with this monster axe.

This kind of thing is why I love having custom builds. I figure these instruments will be thrilling folks LONG after I am gone...

But I do hope to be around a lot longer to enjoy them myself!

Cheers

Paul

[steveh]

Man you and Chris are bad for each other - like sending two guys on the wagon to the pub!

I think it's possible I've played this guitar and recall it sounding fabulous.
And if there was any doubt about that, you only have to listen to your great recording. Seriously impressive.

And that Braz looks so quartered!

You're building quite a collection of instruments there...which would you grab if the house is on fire and your wife/child are in the other hand?!

Cheers,
Steve

[nobo]

As if being fortunate enough to have a fabulous guitar from a lovely builder wasn’t enough (ok, actually quite a few of those!), I'm now quite overwhelmed by all your lovely words!

Originally Posted by bmh1

What a gorgeous sound this special Wingert E makes. And your great playing brings that sound alive. In my mind and heart, this is the epitome of what great acoustic guitar music sounds like!
beth

Beth – That's the kind of review I'm honoured to receive! I’m so glad the music’s spoken to you in this way.

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

What a lovely story, and what a BEAUTIFUL RECORDING!

Stunning SOUND. Please tell us the recording technology!

Hi Paul! Thanks for your interest.

Recording wise, it’s a very dry (heavily acoustically treated) room. It’ll be a spaced pair – though I’ll need to check what mics (and so what preamps) ended up in the mix – and a CAD VX2 dual tube mic in the centre, into a DAV preamp. I also record the pickup signals (via a Pendulum SPS1) and a bunch of other mics (er, 12 - it’s a veritable mic forest (!), though usually only 3 or 4 end up in the mix) into various preamps. They all go into an RME UCX, then into Reaper. It’s just a quick mix job of three mics, and maybe one or both of the pickups, since I’ll wait until I’ve finished recording the album before delving properly into mixing and mastering. So the channels are flat (no eq), with a reverb, and then some fairy dust in Ozone.

Originally Posted by steveh

Man you and Chris are bad for each other - like sending two guys on the wagon to the pub!

I think it's possible I've played this guitar and recall it sounding fabulous.
And if there was any doubt about that, you only have to listen to your great recording. Seriously impressive.

And that Braz looks so quartered!

You're building quite a collection of instruments there...which would you grab if the house is on fire and your wife/child are in the other hand?!

Cheers,
Steve

Hey Steve – hope you’re well! Long overdue a catchup!

Yes, great piece of Braz!

I can’t believe you’re making me choose! But yes, this is the one that’d be coming with me and the fam. It’s the most sentimentally significant guitar, but also the one that speaks the most to me (for me?) musically. A really thick, rich, lush, warm and soft sound. Love it! The Wingert and the Sands (which it inspired in many ways) have been getting 80-90% of the action for the past year or so (in as much there’s been any …!). With another Sands on the horizon, I fear they’ll need to be some more thinning, but it’s going to be hard to let go of most of what’s left – especially the Kostals.

Best,

Dan