Luthier Linda Manzer is reunited with The Blue Absynthe - The Blue Guitar Collection
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2022
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The Archtop Foundation was set up in 2021 with a mission to raise awareness of the wonders of the acoustic archtop guitar - it occurred to us that one effective way to do this was to acquire the Chinery Blue Guitar Collection. One of the joys of this project has been reuniting the guitar makers involved in the project in the 1990s with instruments that represent a pivotal moment in their career and a snapshot of their lives. In this video we visit Linda Manzer's workshop for a detailed look at the guitar she contributed to the collection The Blue Absynthe theblueguitars.com/portfolio-... - we sincerely hope you enjoy it!
The Archtop Foundation
theblueguitars.com/
I was fortunate enough to play Linda’s guitars and interview her for a guitar podcast during the 2010 Montreal Guitar Show. An amazing builder and kind person.
True to her love her talents she talks of her works as if it was a child of hers, and it came home.This is nice to see this cherished viewing with her her first impressions after all these years..wonderful. Thank you for this post greatly appreciated 🙏.
Quite amazing and inspiring to see a great builder like Linda Manzer have the opportunity to bond with and see again here own work, 30 years later. The guitar's in great shape, its sound port works swifly, which is not easy to do...and the color is truly magnificent IMO! Thanks for sharing this! Best, T.
Wow, Linda! That is a truly stunning guitar. I love the ebony binding with the blue. The fingerboard is gorgeous. I can only wish I owned it. You are a master luthier indeed.
And RIP, Scott Chinery. Grit is such a great guy, and a superb builder and artist!
Really appreciated this brief video with Linda - and her recollections of the Chinery collection.
Glad you enjoyed it. We loved being there hearing her stories!
This is awesome. She is a true icon, and how cool that you got her to do this. Kudos.
I love archtops and Lindas work speaks for it's self !
would LOVE to buy a Manzer guitar, but on a retired teacher's stipend it ain't happenin'. I did find a used Eastman 805CE that filled the bill quite nicely though...maple and spruce, ebony board, 25" scale, and it has a terrific acoustic punch. If you're poor, get one o' these.
I've been building guitars as a hobby since 1985 and Linda Manzer has always been one of my luthier role models. When I learned of Chinery's Blue Guitars collection, I took that as my inspiration to build my first acoustic guitar, an archtop that is almost not quite to the same general specs as Chinery's Blue Guitars collection. I went with a wider neck and a Gibson standards 24.75" scale because I HATE the 25.5" scale, but otherwise, it's right there with the Blue Guitars spec sheet. That guitar is now 21 years old and it has been absolutely stable. Nothing has moved, nothing has needed to be done with it. Tune it, put it in its case, come back six months later, and it'll still be in perfect tune. Better yet, leave it out, play it a lot! It came out superb. Thanks to Bob Benedetto for writing THE BOOK on making archtop guitars.
I recognise this feeling very well... I started building (archtop) guitars mainly because of the Blue Collection and luthiers like Linda Manzer, Monteleone, Benedetto... Whenever one of my guitars comes back to my workshop for some reason, it feels exactly like this, like a kid returning home after having been away for awhile. ❤
I love the way Linda interacts with this as a music creating instrument, not as some farty collector piece... very handsy, like (daresay) a mother's insistent hands fussing on a healthy but slightly scruffy child.
It's a beautiful moment. This is a person absolutely in harmony with their life's calling and purpose, it would seem.
Of all the guitars played from the Blue Series this one to me sounded the best
It's the only one in tune in the videos. That I've seen anyway!
Linda is absolutely delightful - and her guitar is in tune! They're all beautiful - but nothing sounds good out of tune!
All the Luthiers are such wonderful, gentle, intelligent, driven people - true artists.
Fantastic, it was really amazing to witness her reuniting with her "baby". I hope there will be more of these with the other builders also.
When possible, we'll do just that, but there's a backlog of video content we need to edit and produce. Filmed a few reunions (Kim Walker, John Monteleone) and hope to do a few more in September with Steve Grimes, Tom Ribbecke.
@@theblueguitars Great stuff - I can hardly wait to see those.
🎉
Linda, I love your guitars. I only wish I could, 1. Play well enough to do them justice, and 2. Afford them.
I have Bernie Lehmann's excellent clone of Jimmie's (RIP) Blue Centura Deluxe. It's a remarkable instrument and appears to be very accurate with all of the great woods and techniques unique to Jimmie's guitars. Of course, it plays beautifully (well, as beautifully as I can play it, anyway) and sounds amazing. Not as amazing as Jimmie's, I'm sure, but then, what could be (except yours)?
I'm a long-time friend of Cris Mirabella who knew Jimmie well, and when he was a teenager working for Ronnie DeMarino, even made multi-bound pickguards for him.
This is incredible!
🙌♥️
My dream guitar used to be an L5. Now it's a Manzer.
If you compare it now to the photos in Ken Vose's book you can clearly see the bridge has been fitted "backwards" and it has faded toward green.
Damn, that's fascinating that the original bridge was incorrectly put on backwards as early as the photo session. We don't have the book on hand right now, but will check it out.
How interesting that all these Blue guitars in the Chinery collection have morphed into GREEN guitars. I guess there weren't any stable blue dyes for lacquer back then. And the lacquer itself turns amber over time. So amber plus blue equals green. They are certainly not unattractive. And Linda Manzer is one of the modern legends of lutherie, a true great. She has built quite a number of remarkable guitars that will be remembered for centuries.
“You don’t call, you don’t write ...”