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#197
07-27-2011, 05:24 AM
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Don't you hate it when...
You've been watching a really cool build thread for the best part of a year, the guitar's ready, delivered and...
SILENCE... the guy just disappears! Oh the guilt! Suffice it to say things have been extremely busy here with work, an impending addition to the family and "life in general" and until now I haven't had the chance to sit down and collect my thoughts about this instrument. Bearing in mind that attempting to quantify the performance of any instrument is often an exercise in futility I can objectively say that this guitar does everything that I hoped it would and given that the initial brief was fairly specific I am nothing short of delighted. Throughout the course of this thread I have shared the various aesthetic and ergonomic considerations that Jason factored into the building of this guitar but I barely touched upon the sound I was searching for. As has been proven time and again it is surprisingly difficult to talk about tone with any degree of shared meaning so when Jason and I spoke about the guitar's voice I used the examples of other guitar's tones where Jason and I shared a frame of reference. I am obsessed with tone generation, and the finger style guitar approach allows both hands to be active in the "molecular structure" of the note from its attack to the end of the envelope. To this end I had gone into quite some detail with Jason about what I expected this guitar to be able to let me do. I enjoy "working the bass" of a guitar. Colourful chord voicings on the bass strings and big bends and slurs are my idea of a good time but I do not want the bass to be too smooth... I had said "I want it to growl like a good vintage D-18, ideally a 12-fretter". I had sat with Jason and demonstrated some of the attacks I use on the guitar particularly with the thumb and pinky finger and some "nail return" techniques so he could further understand how to approach the voicing. The trebles of a guitar are the element of the voice that is most likely to give me issues, however it was the trebles of the first guitar that Jason had sent me that really impressed me. I had a hunch that the clarity and separation that Jason had achieved in his own guitar (Mad rose/German) could prove to be something that I would get a lot out of when applied to the less vitrious mahogany that I had chosen. This hunch (for which I can claim absolutely zero credit!) proved to be right. The guitar, as I'd hoped, rewards my lighter touch on the trebles (with very short, polished nails/flesh) with a warmth and immediacy that I hadn't found anywhere else. The points of reference in this case had been the work of Ervin Somogyi (naturally), Michael Greenfield, Stefan Sobell and Bruce and Matt Petros all of whom have a very different signature sound of course! The issue of sustain reared its head soon after the initial "spec meeting" with Jason. I have nothing against sustain but if a sound is to last then it must be a "good"(subjective) sound from the the initial attack to the decay. I have encountered many guitars (and singers...) whose voices are capable of notes that go on for ever but lack the tone I'm looking for within the duration of the note. "Space" is a vital part of my approach to music and I need an instrument that can support a pause with sustain but also let a note decay to total silence in a usable and beautiful (very subjective) way. I love the explosive attack of a great flamenco guitar, the initial swell of a pizzicato'd cello, the chop of a fine mandolin and I don't find myself wishing that those notes would ring on longer than they do. But I also need a note that will last long enough for me to bend, slur and generally speak with while it decays. All this "dancing about architecture" is all very well but without you hearing the guitar at work you'd be forgiven for nodding and smiling in all the right places while wondering when I'll start to make sense! A couple of nights ago I sat down to record a new piece inspired by and dedicated to one of my musical heroes the French composer Erik Satie. It is a work in progress demo recorded with a DPA 4099 clipped to my desk (not on the guitar) and rough as it is it I hope demonstrates some of what I've written about in this post. SATIE That's all for now!
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www.michaelwattsguitar.com Album Recording Diary Skype Lessons Luthier Stories YouTube iTunes Guitars by Jason Kostal, Strings by Elixir, Gefell Mics and a nail buffer. 
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#200
07-27-2011, 01:22 PM
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I think it might be the ultimate pimp guitar- nice job Coastal!
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Sakazo Nakade Flamenco 1964 Bourgeois D Adi Tasmanian Blackwood 2011 Tom Anderson Strat 1990s Schecter California Classic Strat 1990s
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#201
08-10-2011, 02:08 AM
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Congratulations Michael, what a beautiful guitar! How satisfying to be so involved with the design process... bet you didn't sleep on the flight out last month
How's the album coming along? I just part-ex'd a couple of others for the Hamblin GC German spruce/firestorm cocobolo at TAMCO - you can colour me very happy right now  Jon B
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#202
08-22-2011, 10:58 PM
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Michael, I absolutely loved hearing you (a marvelous guitarist) play your guitar (an outstanding guitar) at Healdsburg. Truly, it was a highlight of my Healdsburg trip this year. Thank you!
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Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Warren Buffett
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#203
10-07-2011, 09:37 AM
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Some new pics...
   been snowed under but some new studio vids are planned soon. The guitar is sounding wonderful. The most common thing I've been hearing is "It's amazing, I've never heard anything like it" and "it completely suits your playing" which I have to agree with!
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www.michaelwattsguitar.com Album Recording Diary Skype Lessons Luthier Stories YouTube iTunes Guitars by Jason Kostal, Strings by Elixir, Gefell Mics and a nail buffer.
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#204
10-08-2011, 01:38 PM
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looks beautiful! seems like its a very "balanced" guitar
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Eric Omega Braz MJ, 2011 Omega MJ Braz Baritone Ryan Cathedral ABW/Bosnian Build thread: 2011 Kostal Mod D Brazilian/German Build thread: 2019 Kostal MDW Brazilian/German Build thread:2019 Bigfoot Mod D
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#205
10-20-2011, 12:55 PM
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Videos!
Ok, got together with my partner in crime Bradley Steenkamp of Sound on Sound Magazine to shoot some video.
The seasons are changing here in the UK with the leaves on the trees outside turning deep red. I spent the morning listening to George Winston's legendary record "Autumn" and got inspired to get out into nature and make some music. This was filmed in the beautiful countryside of the South Downs in East Sussex with a close stereo mic set-up. There was a lot of wind noise so we took a line from the K+K just in case but ended up not using it. A parametric eq got rid of the worst of the traffic/wind noise. So here it is, click here and I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to comment/like/share etc and thanks as always for your support guys, it really does mean a lot to me 
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www.michaelwattsguitar.com Album Recording Diary Skype Lessons Luthier Stories YouTube iTunes Guitars by Jason Kostal, Strings by Elixir, Gefell Mics and a nail buffer.
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#207
10-20-2011, 01:54 PM
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Cheers Vic, there's more to come, I'm playing with Erik Mongrain this Saturday and it's getting filmed too.
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www.michaelwattsguitar.com Album Recording Diary Skype Lessons Luthier Stories YouTube iTunes Guitars by Jason Kostal, Strings by Elixir, Gefell Mics and a nail buffer.
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#209
10-21-2011, 09:42 AM
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great video!! Can’t wait for more...the guitar sounds and looks amazing!
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Mike ’11 Bashkin Belleza - GC (Cedar/Mahogany) ’89 Taylor 712 Takamine EN-50 ESP Ltd MV-200
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