I'll be wrapping up my time at this year's Holy Grail Guitar Show with a demo concert for the Boss Man himself, Mr Jason Kostal of Kostal Guitars! Here he is, demonstrating a keen eye for pattern matching and pocket square "sprezzatura" so rarely seen in the world of contemporary guitar building. I'll be playing two very special instruments in this demo and it will be a great opportunity to see the diversity of character that Jason is able to build into his immaculate guitars while maintaining the characteristic Kostal tone and response.
And here is Jason pictured in his Arizona workshop, one of my favourite places on Earth. He is cradling my MDW signature model (Quilted Birdseye Maple and German Spruce), at that point freshly strung up for the first time. He looks pretty happy with it!
You can learn all about the thinking and creative process that went into the MDW in this video. A huge amount of shared experience and love went into this guitar and, as ever, Jason met and exceeded my extremely high expectations. I am now writing my second album and the MDW is playing an integral role in this process. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you when the time comes.
The Kostal MDW model has been proving very popular with Jason's clientele. Here is a recent testimonial that Jason posted on his Facebook page written by a new MDW owner who obviously "gets" this guitar right from the first experience. This is a beautiful and moving thing and I am very happy to know that this guitar is inspiring players (and luthiers) alike all over the world.
A mini concert wouldn't be the same without a brand new instrument to put through its paces and in this case we're looking at this stunning Jumbo cutaway model in The Tree and German Spruce! This guitar was actually ordered by a friend of mine and I will be playing it very carefully indeed before it flies off to its new home. Jason has been building with The Tree since 2010 (my own Modified Dreadnought #32 was the first guitar he made in this wood) and has a wealth of experience with this true Holy Grail of tone woods. I can't wait to see how it works in a Jumbo. From a tone point of view I expect it to be an excellent foil to my Maple MDW.
The Tree - The most beautiful, rare and desirable tone wood in the world.
My mini concert for Kostal Guitars takes place at 11:30 on Sunday May 6th in the Lyon Room. I look forward to seeing you there. For more details visit the official Holy Grail Guitar Show website.
Stay tuned,
MDW