History and Evolution of the Series (Continued)

…In high school I had gotten a 19th century Martin that I took with me to Chicago when another friend and I went in to see Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin at the Arie Crown Theater - it was my first rock concert. We went to a guitar shop the day after the concert and they had the Stratocaster Jeff had played the night before; and they wanted to trade me a Gibson J-200 (not real old, but not new) and some cash for my vintage Martin. I didn't do it, but I kind of liked the J-200. It had depth and an incisiveness that were engaging, but I didn't like the style of sunburst shading, and it didn't have the intimacy and stature I felt the old Martin had.

After graduate school (early eighties) I'd had some nice guitars, but was still drawn to the J-200 model. I'd seen "Loving You" (1957) with Elvis and thought his blonde J-200 looked great, so I kept in contact with Dave Sebring (then at Gruhn Guitars) to see if he could find a nice one; I knew many of the Nashville players used J-200s for recording, and both the look and the tone appealed to me. One never turned up that seemed the right fit, so I ordered a custom Martin when they started the custom shop back in 1983.

Then I got deeply interested in archtops and spent a long while exploring that universe, until I met Steve Klein at an Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans conference when my publisher for the D'Angelico/D'Aquisto book sent me to share my new tome. During the years of visiting with Steve, I learned that one of his big influences in designing his own guitars was the J-200, but by this time I had a Klein acoustic and was very comfortable with it; and I had been drawn to more exotic handmade instruments after my experiences with D'Angelicos, D'Aquistos, and Kleins.

Due to a variety of circumstances, in the early millennium I found myself in need of an acoustic guitar, and wasn't really sure where to turn. I'd played and written about my favourites, but by then the prices had gone exceedingly high - far beyond my means, and of the new Gibsons I'd tried, none really felt 'Gibsony' to me.

One evening on the internet I chanced upon a Zemaitis-styled guitar by "Dave of England" - it was a really large bodied instrument (over 18") and it was very intriguing, and reminiscent of a J-200 but with unique aesthetics I found appealing - the size, silhouette, heart-shaped abalone-bathed soundhole, lovely figured european sycamore maple, engraved metal headpiece plate and truss-rod cover. I'd known of Zemaitis guitars, but had never really had much experience with them, and by this time the interesting vintage models were very expensive. I learned that Dave (of "Dave of England" - a moniker coined by Tony) had been friends with Tony Zemaitis and that Tony had passed along all of his original jigs and tooling to Dave to continue the tradition of exclusively handmade guitars in Britain (all of the Dave of England guitars have a Zemaitis interior label signed by Tony Zemaitis). The large-bodied guitar being offered for sale had been made for Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer), but it wasn't fancy enough for him, so it was available - not inexpensive, but affordable. I bought it and 'made friends' with it, and as that friendship ripened I had the idea to do a series of instruments with all of the features I favoured of the various original Zemaitis guitars I'd recently researched. Hence the birth of the Queen of Hearts Series.

The plan was to make five instruments in the next size smaller than the large-bodied guitar I had gotten initially (the Queen of Hearts instruments are sixteen and three-quarters inches at the lower bout), with the heart-shaped soundhole festooned with abalone (or pearl), the three-point headpiece (one of Tony's last designs), the old-world 'smiling' bridge, Danny O'Brien engraved metal parts specially-designed for the series, and unique-to-each-guitar subtleties with woods and inlays (no one of the five is exactly alike). Musically and visually these instruments have been very lovely, embodying the musical character of the older J-200s but with even greater flair, zeal, and personality; and having a visual aesthetic that is simultaneously beautiful, distinctive, and timeless. The tone is best described as 'breadth and sparkle'.

To date, three have been made. The first two, along with the large-bodied 'idea' instrument have been sold. One collector/player who purchased one of the Queen of Hearts instruments said he favours it over instruments in his collection that were nearly quadruple the cost.

Price for the one available instrument is $7500 plus actual shipping and full insurance. The instrument comes with a Hiscox hard case (also made in England).

If you are interested in this instrument and would like to learn of it in greater detail, or if you would like to be contacted when the last two instruments are available, give us a call.

Peace,
Paul