There was a pretty cool article on guitars and guitar-making in a recent (May 14) New Yorker. The article focuses on luthier Ken Parker, who has designed and built some incredible and radical new guitars. You can read an excerpt here, but unfortunately that’s only about 10% of the article. The good news is that the online version links to an MP3 where you can hear some of the guitars the author is talking about. The audio’s a really nice complement to the article (if the direct MP3 link is a problem for some reason, you can get to it by clicking on the Related Links section on the right on the print page). If you are interested in the full article (that issue will be difficult to find at this point), please leave a comment and we’ll figure something out.

Thankfully, I’ve never been bitten by the guitar bug. It takes both hands to play even a single note, and unlike the piano the same note—say, E above middle C—exists up to six different places on the fretboard. This confuses me, for some reason. Every once in a while I’ll hear a song and say I wish I could play what that guitar is doing, but I’m grateful not to experience this:

…The best old instruments have a harmonic richness that transcends subjectivity…. “You could put a blindfold on and you would say, ‘Oh my God, that is so beautiful,’” T.J. Thompson, a guitar maker in Concord, Massachusetts, told me. “It sings, it’s balanced, it’s musical. Every chord you play sounds magical.” …He estimates that only about one in twenty prewar Martins has that mesmerizing sound, but that those alone could drive the vintage craze. “They should come with a warning,” he told me. “If I put one of those old dreadnoughts in your hand, you’ll never forget it. You’ll long for it, and you’ll sell any holdings in real estate you have, and your marriage will end, and your kids won’t go to college. But you’ll be happy, because you have a dreadnought.”

I can’t be smug because I’ve been bitten hard by the recording bug—do you know what an incredible microphone you can buy for $1000 these days?—and anyway this article talks about guitars in a league—$30,000 to $50,000—that I wouldn’t even dream of. But it takes me to a wistful and luminous place, reading about the level of art and love of the game in the world that these people inhabit in their craft.

I can’t resist closing with a quick quote. Near the end of the article, the author attends a playoff between a trio of guitar virtuosos on the very best of the best archtops, flattops, and Parker’s creation, the Olive Branch.

Afterwards, Parker and the players stood around in Guth’s kitchen, eating whitefish and egg salad. They told stories about Duke Ellington and Django Reinhardt, Dr.John and Bobby (Blue) Bland, [and] about Bill Monroe biting into his first bagel (“Dang! This is the worst doughnut I ever did eat!”)….

I laughed for five minutes solid on that one, tears running down my face.