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  #1  
Old 04-29-2022, 09:51 AM
Carey Carey is offline
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Default John Mills plays Bach Cello Suite I on a Simon Ambridge guitar

Love his musicality and command of the instrument:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWsF...ture=emb_title

More here:http://ambridgeguitars.co.uk/the-sou...bridge-guitar/
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Old 04-29-2022, 05:10 PM
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If only....!!
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Old 05-01-2022, 11:41 AM
Gitfiddlemann Gitfiddlemann is offline
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Great stuff Carey. Imagine performing this suite while still needing to have the music in front of you. John Mills is a truly under appreciated player, and teacher!
Thanks for sharing.
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Old 05-01-2022, 12:37 PM
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You are welcome! I'm still hoping to get that instructional DVD he did awhile back..
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Old 05-21-2022, 03:07 PM
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The following is a piece [Simon Ambridge] wrote for the Guild of American Luthiers journal ‘American Lutherie’ number 142 / Spring 2021. I give credit to the GAL as the original publisher.

Remembering Julian Bream

Julian’s playing had always been an inspiration to me and was one of the reasons I decided to pursue classical guitar making as a vocation. I had written several letters of introduction to him and always received very polite but disinterested replies- at least he was reading them I thought!
It wasn’t until 2009 that I eventually had the opportunity to make him an instrument.

In 2008 Miles Roberts (the owner of Kent Guitar Classics) had shown Julian a Hauser style guitar I had made which impressed him and he asked if I could make a similar guitar but with some small changes. Mainly he wanted the fundamental frequency to be lower, in fact somewhere near E which was a new challenge for me, although the guitars I was making at the time were heading in that direction.

I was also very fortunate in 2008 to borrow for an extended period a 1940 Hauser which originally belonged to Saul Marantz, the HiFi pioneer. By all accounts this was the sister guitar to the Rose Augustine Hauser which Julian had on loan from the Augustine Estate. I examined the Augustine Hauser at Julian’s during a visit and can confirm that the two guitars are almost identical in appearance except for the omission of the head inlay and the addition of the engraved Mother of Pearl tie block on the Augustine (the Marantz has two bone strips on the tie block). The thicknesses of plates and the resonances of both guitars are also comparable. Internally there is a striking difference between the two guitars- whereas the Augustine has kerfed spruce top linings, the Marantz has double linings made up of two separate kerfed strips. I’m not sure if Hauser 1 used double linings in any other of his guitars.

It was the Marantz Hauser which I used as a model for Julian’s guitar. It has single linings, but I’ve since made many Hauser style guitars with double linings that have been very successful.

After playing my guitar for a couple of weeks Julian asked me to make some adjustments to the set up before committing to buying it so I went along with Miles Roberts to Donhead with a set of nut files and some sandpaper. This was my first face to face meeting with Julian and although he was extremely friendly and welcoming, the prospect of working on the guitar in front of him filled me with dread. He wanted me to take a few shavings of bone from a couple of the nut slots and lower the action by a slither. Thankfully he offered to take Django out for his afternoon walk while Miles and I improvised a work bench from one of Julian’s antique armchairs! After a week or so of further playing it Julian said he would like to buy it and in a letter he wrote: “ The guitar you built is a beautiful thing to behold, and the sound, which at present is good will no doubt blossom in about 6 months and fully mature in about a year to 18 months. I feel the instrument has still someway to go which makes it an exciting prospect.”

By the time he bought my guitar Julian had retired from professional playing but he was always enthusiastic about seeing my guitars and whenever I visited him I always took one or two instruments to show him. The conversation invariably came round to his feelings about guitar construction and his preference for low resonance ‘boxes’ such as the Augustine Hauser which has an air resonance of E flat. He talked about Hausers having a ‘floating’ soundboard which to him was an intuitive, almost tactile thing, but I think he was alluding to the fact that Hauser 1 guitar soundboards were originally built flat and the later doming is mainly in the bridge area where the tension is concentrated, freeing up the periphery of the top.

I always thought that it was curious that Julian was adamant that his 1973 Romanillos was an E ‘box’, and similarly the guitar he said was the best he had ever played, namely Segovia’s 1937 Hauser- both guitars having a fundamental resonance of F sharp or thereabouts.

Julian told me that he played my guitar every day and it gave him a lot of pleasure but sadly the dexterity in his hands was diminishing to an extent that he found it more comfortable to play the piano. Even so the sounds he made on the guitar, though limited, were exquisite. Occasionally he gave impromptu ‘secret’ recitals for friends or the local community and on one occasion played my guitar in a private memorial recital at the Wigmore Hall. One day Julian called me to say that he had loaned the guitar to Jonathan Leathwood as he felt he would get the best out of it, considering his own worsening condition. I had known Jonathan and admired his playing since the early 90s so I was pleased that Julian’s guitar was in the hands of a fine guitarist and musician. Jonathan expected to have to return it someday but after Julian’s passing he was told that Julian had bequeathed the guitar to him.
Julian had a strong connection with Dartington Hall where my workshop is located, and walking in the grounds most days I am reminded of his legacy with the place, where he taught and performed at the Dartington Summer School from 1957 to the early sixties and where he made many long-lasting friendships including Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, Richard Rodney Bennett and Cornelius Cardew. That’s a story for another day…



Edit: maybe this should've been in a Julian Bream post- oh, well.
It's good to hear that that guitar went to Jonathan Leathwood.

There is more info on Julian Bream's guitars at this fine site:
http://www.julianbreamguitar.com/cla...adulthood.html

Last edited by Carey; 05-21-2022 at 04:28 PM.
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Old 02-15-2023, 07:02 PM
Carey Carey is offline
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Ahh, I was finally able to place an order for that John Mills 'Evolucion' dvd. I am looking forward to viewing it, and will post something about it after doing so (assuming it arrives).
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Old 02-22-2023, 07:09 AM
TRose TRose is offline
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Wonderful playing and a lovely guitar.
I followed the link and listened to many of the guitars being played and they are fantastic. I’m particularly intrigued by the Torres model.

On another note I’d love to learn to play Mr Mills arrangement of She Moved Through the Fair. To your knowledge are the tabs available?
Thanks,
Tom
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Old 02-22-2023, 12:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TRose View Post
Wonderful playing and a lovely guitar.
I followed the link and listened to many of the guitars being played and they are fantastic. I’m particularly intrigued by the Torres model.

On another note I’d love to learn to play Mr Mills arrangement of She Moved Through the Fair. To your knowledge are the tabs available?
Thanks,
Tom

Echo that!! Will have to look around. And I am totally a Torres guitar fan!
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Mark Hatcher Pina Parlor Torrified Maple/Cedar
Stephen Kinnaird 00 B&W Ebony/Engelmann Spruce
Simon Fay African Blackwood/Sinker Redwood
Wolfgang Jellinghaus Torres Modelo 43S Maple/Spruce
K Yairi CYTM Maple/Cedar
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Old 02-23-2023, 07:38 PM
TRose TRose is offline
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Originally Posted by canuck7 View Post
Echo that!! Will have to look around. And I am totally a Torres guitar fan!


I’ve search the internet and am unable to find the tabs. The music might be in one of his many books but not likely the tabs. If you have any luck please let me know.
Best,
Tom
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Old 03-16-2023, 12:23 PM
Carey Carey is offline
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The John Mills 'Evolucion' dvd arrived yesterday about a month after placing the order. The trailer for it can be viewed here (I think, it's not showing up on my old computer at the moment):http://www.davidjaggs.com/dvd.html

The format shown in the trailer is follwed throughout the 50+ minutes of the program, with Mills demonstrating with musical fragments and well-chosen words. He can really bring music to life with the tools he uses, and I'll be viewing this many times.

Chapter headings:

Development of the construction
Development of posture and right hand technique
Vibrato (really nice)
Compensation and tonal shading (ditto)
Dynamics, balance, and tone color
Rubato and portamento
Composers
Segovia masterclass
Changing style
Performance of Tansman Entree
Performance of Torroba Elegia

For $21 delivered to the US I think it's a very good value if Mills's style suits you, as it does me.
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