Belated Introduction

[Rio]

I've been lurking, and am rather tardy with this post. My apologies.

I've been playing guitar, frequently classical, for a long time, though I've made occasional departures into other forms of music.

In college, though I wasn't a music major, I was allowed to study in the guitar department and had about three years of classical guitar. It was fun, though at that time (the early '70s), college level classical guitar was a rather disorganized affair, and the music department as a whole didn't seem to know quite what to make of us. I was not the best student. Actually, I was a rather miserable student, though I did play Debussy's "Maid with the Flaxen Hair" (Bream's transcription, with some modifications) at my last jury, and Chris Parkening seemed very pleased with it.

After that, I rather lost track of the instrument and let it go. I played in a metal band (hobby) in the 80's, and played wire-strung harp professionally for a number of years. Recently, I've picked up my guitars again and have been trying to recover the parts of my old repertoire that I liked the most.

I don't know very many pieces. Some Villa-Lobos, some Tarrega, the mandatory "Leyenda" and some Bach. A little Dowland, a little Mudarra. That sort of thing. On top of that, I've rather fallen in love with some of the more classic Japanese pop, and have made guitar arrangements of my favorite tunes. So I've got rather a hodge-podge of music. (I believe the polite term is "eclectic".)

As far as guitars go, I'm not overly picky. I play what sounds good to me on any given day, whether it's a shallow bowl, steel-string Ovation, a very nice Mcilroy, or one of my classical guitars: I have a sweet-sounding Kohno from the 80's, and a year or so ago I purchased a Loriente "Angela".

I like being able to play most everything on everything. When I was playing wire-strung harp, I got in the habit of keeping my nails very short, and this lets me play steel strings with a minimum of erosion. I try not to get into categories: I just make music.

In spite of the above heretical practices, I hope all you kind people will tolerate my presence here in the forum.

Rio

[DJH]

Welcome, Rio.
Nice intro. Sounds like you'll have a very rounded view of things musical - can only be good ! (By the way, what J-pop pieces are you referring you ?)
Make yourself comfortable, I look forward to your posts.

Dominic

[Dave Tate]

Welcome Rio!

Please make yourself at home.

Dave

[bruno]

Hello there, Rio!

Nice intro.

I´d really like to know your views on the Angela, since I´ve been considering buying one for some time.

Appreciated!

Bruno

[brian richardson]

welcome to the forum Rio!!!
jump right in!!!

[David_Norton]

Hi Rio,

Nice to have you with us. I'm also a relative newbie to the Forum; thus far it seems like a fun place to hang out and talk about geetars.

DN

[Rio]

Thanks to everyone for your very kind greetings.

Dominic: I've been working on the J-pop for a while. Here's a rundown on what I have...

Genki o Dashite [trans. "Cheer Up!"] is a pretty tune that's been covered by a number of singers and appeared as the end theme of the TV series "Hanako-san of the Locker" (I kid you not about the title, but it's a sweet series). I worked up my arrangement from the track by Mariko Yakushimaru.

~deja vu~ is from the Macross II soundtrack. Lots of synth stuff, and a nice modulation in the bridge. Fun to play, but it really wore out my hands until I built up some endurance because of all the barre work.

True Romance is one of the true gems of J-pop. Unfortunately, it appears only as the ending theme of one of the episodes of Earthian, a fairly bizarre and incomprehensible anime. (The manga version is no better.)

Arrow of Pain was my first attempt at a J-pop arrangement on guitar. It's by Chihiru Onitsuka, from her album "This Armor". I originally did this for electric guitar with a pick, but since my relations with guitar picks are roughly similar to those between North and South Korea, I've migrated the arrangement over to fingerstyle.

Angel Voice, from Macross Dynamite (an OVA) transferred fairly easily: lots of easy chord formations.

Pride and Piece of My Wish are from the repertoire of the incomparable Miki Imai. She's been singing for something like twenty-five years now, and she still opens her mouth and this...incredible...voice comes out. Pure and sweet and perfectly effortless. I often wish I could do anything (even folding newspapers) as well as she sings.

I've got a couple more in progress. Rouge's Theme is one of the most delightful three and a half minutes that has ever been recorded. It's from the Princess Rouge soundtrack, composed by Harukichi Yamamoto. Amost forgotten, never equalled...and the craziest chord voicings you've ever seen. Then there's another one sung by Miki Imai: Hansode (trans: Short Sleeves). Very pretty, but I have to go back to the CD and work out the introduction.

Then, of course, there's all the unimportant stuff, like the Villa-Lobos prelude and etude, "Requerdos", and the Bach courante. <g>

Rio

[Rio]

Hello there, Rio!

I´d really like to know your views on the Angela, since I´ve been considering buying one for some time.

Appreciated!

Bruno

Hi, Bruno!

First off, the Angela looks and smells yummy. The spruce and the maple make the guitar appear as though it's been carved out of French vanilla ice cream. The odor of the maple is sweet and hits you in the face like a cream pie when you open the case. I mention this because I don't really think there's enough attention paid to the gastronomic aspects of classical guitars. The Angela is tops in this department: some hot fudge and whipped cream and you're in business. (This does really awful things to the action, though.)

OK, the sound: throughout its gamut, the Angela has a nice punchy attack with a bell-like undertone. Crisp, though: nicely articulated. And the dynamic range is excellent: all the way from whisper to tearing the strings off. The Angela handles them all. There's a brightness underlying the tone, too, that probably comes from the maple: you can't actually see the sunshine, but you know it's there.

The action feels a little high to me, but I'm not the best judge of this because I mess around so much with steel string acoustics and electrics. My Kohno runs lower, I think. The saddle on the Angela is about as low as it's going to go, though. Maybe there's a tad too much neck relief...but this isn't something that I'm going to mess with, particularly since all actions higher than an Angstrom unit seem high to me sometimes.

The open G has a bit of a resonance peak. This might be because my strings are old, though. (Bad, bad Rio!) It's certainly nothing overt. I noticed it only because I've been playing the guitar intensively for the last day or so, so I could reply intelligently to your question.

I bought the Angela because the idea of a maple guitar that didn't have pickups and three coats of Day-Glo polyurethane intrigued me, and I can't say I've been disappointed in the instrument. Like the blurb on GSI's website says, it's probably better for playing 19th and early 20th century repertoire. I don't, for instance, think my J-pop sounds as good on the Angela as on my Kohno. Bach works well, though, as does general messing around. If I can ever untangle my fingers, the Villa-Lobos should be nice, along with the Tarrega and Albeniz.

Rio

[bruno]

Thanks for the review, Rio.

I can relate to your mention of the gastronomic aspects of guitars. I think you´re right, this is a subject not often spoken about. I myself have always revelled in the physical aspect of guitars (smell, feel, looks...). I now own a wonderful Sebastian Stenzel that I bought from GSI. I think the decision to go ahead with the purchase came when David Collett likened the Stenzel´s sound to "crème brûlée" - he was right! The guitar has a nice sweet-sour smell that I´ve become addicted to. Almost every time I take it out from its case I give it a sniff...perhaps not a confession I should be making in public!...

Anyway, I gather from your comments that Angela presents a good cost-benefit equation. Is that right?

[Rio]

Thanks for the review, Rio. ... I gather from your comments that Angela presents a good cost-benefit equation. Is that right?

I'd say, yes, it's well worth the money. If you're looking for a maple-y sound like I described, I don't think you'll be at all disappointed.

Rio