Esteban

[APERTURE]

--

[Jonny Hotnuts]

Funny thing.

The other night I was surfing and seen the same paid commercial program you speak of. Being a player I watched a few just to see what the fuss was all about.

Here is a guy pimping this 100$ stick.

But make no mistakes, while he may seem to be a nice guy on tv the truth may be very different. After working in radio for years I have first hand seen the seedy side of people. And as soon as the camera is off, there is 180 degree change.

But I am not saying that is the truth in this case. But make no mistake he is doing this for money. Not that there is anything wrong with this. After all, I would be the first to take the millions he is getting for doing the same thing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2566809207&category=2384

I do like the concept however. Make an affordable guitar that is playable and offer it into a package to help upstarts find the love of playing. Only problem is that the guitar is too affordable. Minus the costs of the videos, printings, production cost (paid program) , marketing, S&H, the phone answering service, not to mention the cost to air the nation wide 30-60 minute segment, the fact that everyone is getting paid AND they are making a profit, the little 100$ guitar is now costing them much less.

I would say that to maintain any profit they would have to pay no more than 20-25$ per guitar “kit”. And I am being 100% realistic when I say this.

I have been playing for a long time, given lessons and worked in a guitar factory.
I consider myself to be better than average.
I have also seen new upstarts buying a peace of crap guitar because it was all they could afford and I myself could not play it. And therefore a new player would have no chance in hell of learning on it and therefore give it up because playing was too hard.
And this would be a shame.
I have not played his though and it may be a fine starter. If so good for him, if not he should have his fingers broken.


Here is a true story about another well known paid program “star”.


I have a very close friend who owns a charter fishing boat in Alaska.
A few years ago, Ron Popeel (the famous rotisserie and spray on hair guy)
chartered his boat with his 16 year old daughter. They would catch fish after fish on my friends “rigs” take the salmon off, connect it to his “pocket fisherman” and take pictures as if they had done it on the little 16” rod. It just did not happen.
Ron also was smoking weed with his daughter on the back of the boat. (my friend also smokes from time to time so would not of been a big dead) but on his boat if you USCG were to stop him he could loose his charter. So Ron said OK and put it out. About 30 min later he saw them smoking on the front of the boat and said he had a choice to throw it over (weed) or he was going to throw him over. Ron said “do you have any idea who I am!!!” my friend replied “not the captian of this G. D. boat!”

Ron threw it over.



True story.

[keith]

hey jonny hotnuts: have you ever heard of a lawyer--dude you may need one if mr. ronco reads what you wrote. reporting in a medium that is viewed by the public allows the possibility that someone may read what you wrote, send it off to mr. ronco, and boom, mr. lawyer is at your door wanting your money and your axe. just relay stories with no names--sure would hate to not see your replies if you are unable to afford a computer. be cool dude. 8)

[NGiorgio]

I also saw a bit of the Esteban program Sunday night. I've seen him a few times. First time was a couple of years back, also on HSN. Then he was playing solo, without amplification. My wife likes his playing and has purchased some of his CD's. Some of his recordings are very listenable and on one CD, along with the "Pop" stuff, he does a couple of Flamenco inspired tunes and a respectable version of a Bach Prelude. It seems that he had studied with Segovia and has excellent technique. He is too
"commercial" for my tastes, though.

I am in agreement with Jonny's comments regarding inferior beginner instruments. When I was teaching, students were coming in with some awfully unplayable guitars. I had a hands on look at one of Esteban's nylon string guitars a year or so ago. We were on vacation in the Tampa area (where HSN originates from) and we were in HSN's clearance store. I spied what appeared to be a guitar box and sure enough it was an Esteban "signature" guitar. It was new, without the book etc. While waiting for my wife to finish shopping, I checked it out pretty well. Wasn't bad for the price. It was playable and perfect for a beginner. It may have been made in China, not sure. Probably cost far less than $25. to produce.

I give the guy a lot of credit for what he is doing. He is getting the guitar "out there" and making some nice money.

[NewLuthier]

i have to say after seeing that infomercial that I don't give an ounce of respect to that guy anymore. There is nothing wrong with pushing cheap guitars, it's part of my job in fact. The issue I have is telling people it's something more than it really is. This guitar is OF COURSE made in china, as almost every low-mid level guitar is these days. Cheap guitars can be ok, but they come from the factory rough and need to be adjusted a bit once they get on this side of the ocean. There is no way for a distributor who is buying guitars direct to afford selling them at that price AND setting them up properly. My guess is that 2 out of 3 of these guitars have serious setup issues that need to be corrected before these guitars are suitable for beginners. For a professional musician to get on TV and compare this GSO (guitar shaped object) to his vintage martin is both laughable and sad. The way he talks about the guitar makes it sound to the untrained ear that it's the same quality as the martin and is made from the same materials. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I sold guitars that way.

[MegaBrawn]

I do not live in the states and cannot comment on this matter. But from what I'm hearing it sounds pretty unethical.

But sidetracking... Yamaha's C40 which is pretty good quality for a lowly beginner guitar (that's my opinion anyway), is made in Indonesia. The difference is that I find extremely low end guitars are usually made better in Indonesia as compared to China.

[Louie]

I'm new to this forum and have been studying and playing classical obsessively for about 2 years. I love Esteban's music and playing. Maybe it's because i'm a novice at this classical stuff, but my ears don't lie.

He seems to be selling an entery level guitar for a good price. Besides how many people do you know that spent much much more only to have it placed in their closets to collect dust.

My 8 year old daughter started on a $80.00 3/4 size, after she realized she enjoyed it, I bought her a $400.00 guitar. I don't think Esteban's guitar is much better or worse but at lest he is offering a decent package for $100.00, and like you said, making some $$$ on the side.

Hey, I'd quite my day job in a minute to do the same.

[Todd]

Dont mean to seem negative, but there's no honor in selling junk.
There's no honor in the way he has butchered many a tune.
The guy must have absolutely no consience, or he's just not
very bright. I'll go with the later of the two.
Toddk

[keith]

if chef tony cut up an esteban guitar, would the knife still be sharp enough to slice through a tomato? bread? seems to me that the old adage: "you get what you pay for" somehow does not sink in with those who hand over bucks to a guy hawking a $100 guitar without really doing any research.

personally, i think a chef tony knife and esteban guitar would be great for a weekend of camping. if you could not kill your game with the knife, you could beat it over the head with the guitar. nothing like a little wild game cooked over a wood fire.

[Quail]

I saw Esteban on something like 'THe View' years ago and it seemed like he was self-proclaiming his virtuosity to me. He said he stalked Segovia and begged him until he was accepted. His playing seemed real good, but his nails had to be an inch long.
My biggest problem with the last ten minutes of infomercial that I saw was his claim that you can play classical on his steel string and he played the first bit of 'Recuerdos', now who would really suggest that?