Renaissance madman - Beau Bledsoe

On July 16th, we all loaded up into a couple of cars and headed out to the home of Dave Bucher in Raytown, Missouri. There we received the grand tour of his home, libraries and guitar shop. Giuliano Mingucci helped us document the event. I edited down the half day into this 20 minute video of Dave explaining his construction methods, what inspires him and many historical lesson regarding musical instruments and art.

Personally I was struck by his "three elements" statement of instrument construction at the end of the video. In order; aesthetic, playability and then sound. For a musician, sound is usually the first thing - naturally. I once owned a really great sounding Conde Hermanos flamenco guitar that looked like a twelve year old had built it. But it had "the sound" that made their Madrid workshop so very famous. On the other hand, when I moved to Kansas City I apprenticed at a violin shop and learned much about violin construction. One day, The owner of the shop told me that Stradavarious was nothing more than a fine, methodical builder that used good materials. He also claimed that all we could aspire to do was to copy Michelangelo's David over and over again. The violin being a perfect form like David. Antonio Stradavarious and his Cremona contemporaries had perfected the violin design. Nothing more to add.

The sound of Dave's Portuguese guitar still remains unknown.  It sits in his workshop now, finish drying. It will be ready for strings in about two weeks. I hope his "three elements" ring true in the sound of the instrument. He certainly has aesthetics nailed down.

- Beau