The Blue Guitars: Monteleone Rocket Convertible

[Howard Emerson]

The website is up and running, and here’s the section on John Monteleone’s contribution to the grouping. It features an in-depth description of the build itself, plus performance vignettes by several players with different styles, but all beautifully recorded.

https://theblueguitars.com/portfolio...t-convertible/

I’m truly honored to have been a small part of this, and incredibly blessed to be friends with John for over 50 years.

Regards,
Howard Emerson

[Keith Lee]

Thanks for the link

You earned your place there > had a musical vision, developed your techniques and style...good for you getting there

Your stuff showed sides of the guitar besides standard jazz

You almost make me want to arrange and compose with slide, rather than ad libbing so much

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Keith Lee

Thanks for the link

You earned your place there > had a musical vision, developed your techniques and style...good for you getting there

Your stuff showed sides of the guitar besides standard jazz

You almost make me want to arrange and compose with slide, rather than ad libbing so much

Keith,
Thank you for your kind comments!

I long ago realized I did not possess the synapses to be a hot lead guitar player, and can barely hold a flat pick to boot.

I just got in touch with my inner frustrated bassist & drummer, and tried my best to make some original noise.

It's worked out okay.

Thanks again!

Howard

[tbeltrans]

Howard, you have a very interesting and unique style. Your approach to "It Ain't Necessarily So" is definitely not the run-of-the-mill chord melody that I typically do.

I am not familiar with the second tune you played, but it is lovely too and just as compelling to listen to. You have a very interesting manner of handling an archtop that is refreshing. You get a BIG sound from that Monteleone! I didn't see a plug in, so it must have been acoustically recorded. Though I am sure the guitar is wonderful in all respects, it still takes technique to get the sound you get from it. Well done!

Elsewhere on that site, I read about the making of the Gibson Super 400 for this project. That description exactly matches what I have read about how my Gibson Citation was built, and by the same people. It would be interesting to compare that Super 400 to my Citation for any differences beyond the differences in the design of the respective models.

I can say that unlike ANY archtop I have ever played, even with bare fingers, the whole thing vibrates when I play it, and I have light gauge strings on it. I bet the Monteleone provided that kind of feeling for you as you made those videos too. I would love to sit in a room full of this level of guitar for a week or more. Unfortunately, my only exposure to this world has been my own Citation, but I am grateful for that and it is an everyday occurrence.

Tony

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

Howard, you have a very interesting and unique style. Your approach to "It Ain't Necessarily So" is definitely not the run-of-the-mill chord melody that I typically do.

I am not familiar with the second tune you played, but it is lovely too and just as compelling to listen to. You have a very interesting manner of handling an archtop that is refreshing. You get a BIG sound from that Monteleone! I didn't see a plug in, so it must have been acoustically recorded. Though I am sure the guitar is wonderful in all respects, it still takes technique to get the sound you get from it. Well done!

Elsewhere on that site, I read about the making of the Gibson Super 400 for this project. That description exactly matches what I have read about how my Gibson Citation was built, and by the same people. It would be interesting to compare that Super 400 to my Citation for any differences beyond the differences in the design of the respective models.

I can say that unlike ANY archtop I have ever played, even with bare fingers, the whole thing vibrates when I play it, and I have light gauge strings on it. I bet the Monteleone provided that kind of feeling for you as you made those videos too. I would love to sit in a room full of this level of guitar for a week or more. Unfortunately, my only exposure to this world has been my own Citation, but I am grateful for that and it is an everyday occurrence.

Tony

Hi Tony,
I'm pleased to read that you enjoyed my contribution to the Blue Collection video archives, which were ably shot & recorded by Michael Watts! I believe the majority of the videos feature the guitars au natural, sans amps, ie actually unplugged......what a concept, huh?

I forget which mics he used, but there were 2 of them. It's apparent that it was done in a very dry acoustic environment.

The second piece is mine, as briefly noted under the title for a second:-)

If you're ever on Long Island I'm sure I could arrange a visit to John's shop with a bit of a heads-up.

The idea for my arrangement of 'It Ain't Necessarily So' occurred a few years back watching a PBS piece that included the father of guitarist Anthony Wilson, who used to play with Cab Calloway, and they showed Cab & Co. doing the Gershwin piece.

It spontaneously came to mind that it could be a slow drag guitar blues, for lack of a better description, which is ironic because the melody is from a sung Torah blessing "Bar'chu et adonai ham'vorach" (Bless God who is the blessed one), but I digress.......

It was then just a simple task of figuring out which tuning to use that would afford me the voicings I'm capable of playing. I pretty much knew I wanted the IV chord to be deeper than the root, so I went for open G w/low C tuning.

Having owned a 1930 Gibson L-5 since 1976 (my main bottleneck guitar), I've had an atypical view of archtops, and John will be the first to tell you it was in large part due to my hanging around his shop, along with Billy McEwan (who played Reverend Gary Davis tunes and 1920-30's novelty songs) on a 1928 Gibson L-5 that he quickly understood that archtops were not just jazz guitars.

Of course Maybelle Carter proved that a century ago......

Here's one of the pair of Eclipse models that John made for Eric Clapton before it left the shop. I'm in simple high dropped D tuning.



Thanks again!

Howard

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Hi Tony,
I'm pleased to read that you enjoyed my contribution to the Blue Collection video archives, which were ably shot & recorded by Michael Watts! I believe the majority of the videos feature the guitars au natural, sans amps, ie actually unplugged......what a concept, huh?

I forget which mics he used, but there were 2 of them. It's apparent that it was done in a very dry acoustic environment.

The second piece is mine, as briefly noted under the title for a second:-)

If you're ever on Long Island I'm sure I could arrange a visit to John's shop with a bit of a heads-up.

The idea for my arrangement of 'It Ain't Necessarily So' occurred a few years back watching a PBS piece that included the father of guitarist Anthony Wilson, who used to play with Cab Calloway, and they showed Cab & Co. doing the Gershwin piece.

It spontaneously came to mind that it could be a slow drag guitar blues, for lack of a better description, which is ironic because the melody is from a sung Torah blessing "Bar'chu et adonai ham'vorach" (Bless God who is the blessed one), but I digress.......

It was then just a simple task of figuring out which tuning to use that would afford me the voicings I'm capable of playing. I pretty much knew I wanted the IV chord to be deeper than the root, so I went for open G w/low C tuning.

Having owned a 1930 Gibson L-5 since 1976 (my main bottleneck guitar), I've had an atypical view of archtops, and John will be the first to tell you it was in large part due to my hanging around his shop, along with Billy McEwan (who played Reverend Gary Davis tunes and 1920-30's novelty songs) on a 1928 Gibson L-5 that he quickly understood that archtops were not just jazz guitars.

Of course Maybelle Carter proved that a century ago......

Here's one of the pair of Eclipse models that John made for Eric Clapton before it left the shop. I'm in simple high dropped D tuning.



Thanks again!

Howard

Oops! I missed that bit of information on your second tune. Sorry about that. Nice piece though.

My personal preference is for a guitar to be unamplified. Something happens to the sound, no matter the hype about a particular pickup or mic when converting acoustic sound to an electronic signal so that for me, the best is to be sitting right there in front of the guitar that somebody is playing (i.e. house concert unamplified) or mic'ed. I never plug in my Gibson Citation because it sounds fine unamplified.

Open tunings on an archtop. As obvious as it seems when you mention it, I never considred doing that. But then, I only dabble occasionally in open tunings since I have my hands full keeping track of all the possible chord voicings I can get in standard tuning. It is a great idea to explore once in a while though. With the long scale of my archtop, it should handle open tunings well.

Nice fingerpicking on that Eclipse model. I hope Eric Clapton got to see that video too.

Tony

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

Oops! I missed that bit of information on your second tune. Sorry about that. Nice piece though.

My personal preference is for a guitar to be unamplified. Something happens to the sound, no matter the hype about a particular pickup or mic when converting acoustic sound to an electronic signal so that for me, the best is to be sitting right there in front of the guitar that somebody is playing (i.e. house concert unamplified) or mic'ed. I never plug in my Gibson Citation because it sounds fine unamplified.

Open tunings on an archtop. As obvious as it seems when you mention it, I never considred doing that. But then, I only dabble occasionally in open tunings since I have my hands full keeping track of all the possible chord voicings I can get in standard tuning. It is a great idea to explore once in a while though. With the long scale of my archtop, it should handle open tunings well.

Nice fingerpicking on that Eclipse model. I hope Eric Clapton got to see that video too.

Tony

Tony,
The matched pair of Eric's guitars were already finished, but on a whim I called John and told him he needed to engrave a couple of well-place 'dots'. It was total irony that Eric had chosen a Monteleone Eclipse based on having seen an older picture of one.



I wonder if Eric ever bothered to take either of the guitars out of the case. If he has, then, I wonder if he'll ever realize that "Hey! Someone put my initials on the headstock!!"....

HE

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Tony,
The matched pair of Eric's guitars were already finished, but on a whim I called John and told him he needed to engrave a couple of well-place 'dots'. It was total irony that Eric had chosen a Monteleone Eclipse based on having seen an older picture of one.



I wonder if Eric ever bothered to take either of the guitars out of the case. If he has, then, I wonder if he'll ever realize that "Hey! Someone put my initials on the headstock!!"....

HE

Nice one. Subtle. I wouldn't have noticed in that picture if you had specified what to look for.

Tony