♫ Tommy Emmanuel and Pedro Javier Gonzales - Bella Soave Duet - Endelss Road Album - Acoustic Guitar ♫

Hi folks,

This is a nice song that's called Bella Soave, the original can be found on Tommy Emmanuel's album Endless Road. On the Endless Road album we can hear Tommy play this song alone but in this video Pedro Javier Gonzales joins Tommy and we get a duet with them playing this beautiful song together.

Pedro is a Flamenco guitarist and this really shows in the song when they play togehter. I didn't know this before but the song Bella Soave was actually made by Tommy in Soave, Italy. Not only that, this video was filmed in Soave! This arrangement of Bella Soave was created for and performed at the 21st Soave Guitar Festival as a tribute to the retiring organisers of the wonderful festival there.

Now I know some of you might ask, what kind of acoustic guitar is Tommy playing? It's not his usual Maton acoustic guitar we see here. This I actually covered in an earlier post and I strongly recommend you go and have a look at the post.

♫ Tommy Emmanuel - Guitar Boogie - Chet Atkins Vintage Trophy 1930 Martin Pre-War Acoustic Guitar ♫

But to keep it short the acoustic guitar we see Tommy playing here this time is a very old Vintage Martin 017 Acoustic Guitar made in 1930. It was given to Tommy by Chet Atkins himself! This old Martin Guitar might look small, but it really does sounds great!

If you go to youtube and have a look at Tommys channel there and look at the comments, it says something interesting. If you are into recording and filming this might surprise you, this video was actually recorded on a iPhone 4S how about that. And the sound was recorded on a Zoom Q3 HD that was nestled in a shirt on the ground to shield it from wind noise!!

This must be some kind of achievement because if you have traveled a lot with recording equipment and done some work in that field you know that you need tons of stuff to get something on camera. This just shows how far we have come, I would imagine that nowadays everyone have camera phones that could compete with some of the little older movie cameras.

♫ Tommy Emmanuel - Guitar Boogie - Chet Atkins Vintage Trophy 1930 Martin Acoustic Guitar ♫

Hi folks,

This is a treat for you, Tommy Emmanuel was at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles last month Feb 2012 and he had something special with him. No I'm not talking about some new tune, but a very rare instrument. Chet Atkins had given Tommy a Vintage Trophy 1930 Martin Guitar and now we get to hear how it sounds while Tommy play Guitar Boogie for us.

Chet Atkins was a big collector of Martin Guitars or at least he keept the ones that sounded the best, to do recordings. However because of his endorsement with Gretsch Guitars he usually had put electrical tape over the Martin logo to keep people for seeing him playing on one.

Well I'm no expert on Vintage Martin Guitars however I can tell you that some of these Vintage Martin Guitars go for anywhere between $2000-$50.000 depending on the model and how good condition they are in. And knowing that, this 1930 pre-war Martin Guitar sure is something to behold. Not to mention it's getting used by Tommy like it's suposed to. The saying "play it like you stole it" comes to mind.

Tommy speaks of his meeting with Chet and how they played the Original Guitar Boogie together. And Chet played the tune exactly as it was done on the original recording.

I found this post on a forum and I think that it's a nice read for anyone who like to learn more about Chet Atkins and his Martin Guitars.

Chet Atkins Martins:

A few years ago I had the oppurtinty to work with the legendary songwriter, Harlan Howard. He had several nice guitars which I kept strung up and tuned for him. One morning a few years ago,I walked into his office and noticed a different case. He told me to open it up and see what I thought about it.Inside was the ugliest old D-28 I'd ever seen. Held together by strings and some serious glue.

Then I picked it up.. One of the best sounding Martins I'd ever played, and I've played some good ones. Seems Harlan bought the D-28 new in '60 when he moved to Nashville. As soon as Chet heard it, he proclaimed it "special" and started borrowing it to play on sessions. One night while in Harlan's posession, the phone rang and he jumped out of bed and put his #12 foot through the top. Looked like a woodshop kid fixed it. He finally told Chet to keep the guitar in about '65, saying "since it's felt the masters touch, it hasn't helped me very much". 

After Chet passed away his family sent it back to Harlan, who told me to keep it and play it. There was a black piece of electricians tape over the Martin logo.I guess with his Gretsch endorsement, he didn't want to be seen playing one on T.V. But he obviously knew a great guitar when he heard one. This is the Martin pictured in the Chet Atkins "my favorite guitar" book. It's now in the possession of Harlan Howard's family. Chet Atkins was a Martin man too!

♫ Martin Blanes - Emerald Groove - Carbon Fiber Emerald 7 String X30 Acoustic Guitar Video ♫

Custom Made Emerald 9 String Fan Fret Harp Guitar

Hi folks it's Friday again and I thought I would show you something special. You might remember me talking about an Carbon Fiber guitar made by Emerald Guitars from Ireland last year, namely a Custom Made 9 String Harp Guitar seen here.

You can read about that in this post Amazing Emerald 9 String Fan Fret - Custom Made Carbon Fibre Harp Guitar (VIDEO)

Ever since I saw that guitar and heard the sound it made I have not been able to shake the feeling of it. It sounds like a piano, the sound is so rich and nothing you have heard from a guitar before.

Well the 9 String Harp Guitar is not the only one Emerald Guitars in Ireland make, they have a range of different guitars in their line. The one that caught my eye this time is the Carbon Fiber Guitar called the X30, it's a big body guitar and it has 7 Strings. And the sound it makes is just amazing to say the least.

All Emerald Guitars have a molded carbon fiber body that are made and put together without any seams. This together with the stiff and light carbon fiber body makes the whole guitar resonate is such a way that the sound is something else.

Martin Blanes is a great guitar player and he also performes on the Emerald X30 guitar, and best of all we get to hear a great song of his called Emerald Groove that is on his new album available on sale.


Martin writes about the Emerald Guitar and his song Emerald Groove and tells us the following: "It is played on an amazing 'Emerald Guitars' X30 7strings guitar with a wonderful deep dark ruby finish. Completely made of Carbon fiber in Ireland is almost indestructible and plays (and sounds) like heaven!"


Emerald Groove is played in standard 7 string tuning BEADGBE, and sheet music is avaliable opon request. Visit Emerald Guitars: http://emeraldguitars.com Martin Blanes: http://macnichol.com

I would also like to point out a interview with Steve Vai where he also talks about the Emerald Guitars.

If you don't know Steve Vai check out this post.
Steve Vai - Tender Surrender