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Post new topic Bristolian Guitars "Malago"
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Author Topic:  Bristolian Guitars "Malago"
Chris Drew

 

From:
Bristol, UK
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 2:04 am    
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Hi all!
After a good 2years+ of testing/evaluating & tweaking of prototypes, what started out as a very personal "side-project" has (through the persuasion & encouragement of enthusiastic friends) now "moved up a notch"...
So, the website for these guitars is now online...
www.bristolianguitars.com
It's a "parlour-size" hollowneck acoustic...
All the build options are detailed on the site, you can check Basil playing an all-mahogany version here.

Thanks to all the Steel Guitar Forum members for all your inspiration & help!

Chris.
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Mike D

 

From:
Phx, Az
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 8:11 am    
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Very nice and good luck to you!
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Mark Roeder


From:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 11:24 am    
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They look great! How is the pricing in US?
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Chris Drew

 

From:
Bristol, UK
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 12:46 pm    
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Mark Roeder wrote:
They look great! How is the pricing in US?


They sound great too!
At today's exchange-rate they start at $814.42
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Laurence Pangaro


From:
Brooklyn, NY
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 2:49 pm    
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Really lovely! I think a shorter scale Weissenborn is a super idea, and the price is quite modest. If I only weren't woefully underemployed....

LP
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Robert Murphy


From:
West Virginia
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 4:57 pm    
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I just had a hand made Stella acoustic lap steel made by Mike Hauver here in the States. Mike builds 12 & 6 string Stella copies with ladder bracing. This was his first ever lap steel and we designed it off the First Hawaiian Conservatory model. The body and neck are red birch from Canada and the top is Adarondac spruce. The finish is red with MOP finger board and head cover. He had it set up as a fixed bridge and when we strung it up it sounded o.k. but not what I was after. I convinced him to clamp a tailpiece on it and restring. Wow it just says STELLA. He removed the fixed bridge plugged the holes and used an original 30's tailpiece. A few more days for the lacquer to dry and I will post some pics. More Stella!
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Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 20 Jan 2010 5:02 pm    
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Good luck with your new business, Chris. Do you guarantee that your customers will sound as good as Basil does when he plays his ? Very Happy Cool
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Roger Palmer


From:
Rossendale, UK
Post  Posted 21 Jan 2010 2:49 am    
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Wow! Thats a lovely looking guitar Chris

Hope you do well

Regards

Roger
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Brad Bechtel


From:
San Francisco, CA
Post  Posted 21 Jan 2010 7:43 am    
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Nice job on the guitars, Chris. Good luck with them!
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Darrell Urbien


From:
Echo Park, California
Post  Posted 23 Jan 2010 12:47 am    
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Sweet! A very nice update on the "tenor" Hawaiian Knutsen/Weissenborn.
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Chris Drew

 

From:
Bristol, UK
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2010 11:13 am    
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Thanks for the comments guys!
Sorry I can't guarantee that if you buy one you'll sound like Basil...
But maybe I can persuade him to cut you a discount on some lessons if you show up with one! Winking
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Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2010 11:51 am    
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Chris Drew wrote:
...Sorry I can't guarantee that if you buy one you'll sound like Basil...
But maybe I can persuade him to cut you a discount on some lessons if you show up with one! Winking
Well I shall be visiting him sometime next week, so you'd better hurry up and cut a deal. Laughing Laughing
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Scott Thomas

 

Post  Posted 24 Jan 2010 1:18 pm    
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I notice it says "designed in Bristol". Are these manufactured by you as well?
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basilh


From:
United Kingdom
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2010 3:23 pm    
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These guitars are a real boon to lap steel players wishing to play an acoustic lap, BECAUSE the string length is 23" so the slants won't be a problem, not like they would on the full size Weissenborn.
The Bristolian is an ideal instrument for an electric lap player to "Go Acoustic" for an "Unplugged" session,
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Tom Pettingill


From:
California, USA (deceased)
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2010 5:03 pm    
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Those look great Chris! Good luck with the new venture Smile
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Chris Drew

 

From:
Bristol, UK
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2010 7:39 am    
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Scott Thomas wrote:
I notice it says "designed in Bristol". Are these manufactured by you as well?


I make & fit the fretboards & do the final setup here in the UK but the guitars themselves are built in Vietnam.
Each guitar is individually hand-made to order by a highly regarded Vietnamese luthier (and member of the American Guild of Luthiers) with a long history of making high-end acoustic guitars, mandolins etc.

They are a world away from any of the generic factory-made "Weissenborn Copies" with machine-cut parts glued together on a production-line & badged up as "hand-made".
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Chris Drew

 

From:
Bristol, UK
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2010 7:47 am    
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Tom Pettingill wrote:
Those look great Chris! Good luck with the new venture Smile


A compliment from a talent such as yours sure means a lot Tom, thanks!

I know I ain't gonna really make any real money out of these (it's a "niche-within-a-niche" guitar!), but everyone who's heard or played one of these little hollownecks has had such enthusiasm for the tone of them that I just want to give others the opportunity of having one of their own if they so wish.

Anyway, thanks again for the comment!
Chris.
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