Richard Lent: Fingerstyle Guitar

Upcoming performance

Richard Lent — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:01:49 +0000

Sunday, February 6, 2011. Petersham Memorial Library, Petersham MA, 2:00-4:00pm. (Free tea and pastry!)

Upcoming Performance

Richard Lent — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:37:29 +0000

Friday, December 24, 2010. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, First Congregational Parish, Unitarian, Petersham MA.

(Service 7:00pm. Guitar music starts at 6:30pm.)

The resurrection of my Vega (1)

Richard Lent — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:57:06 +0000

I own a Vega dreadnought guitar, made by C. F. Martin in the Netherlands (according to the label). The guitar has a solid spruce top and a body made of what I have been told is mahogany stained to look like rosewood. Martin bought Vega Banjos in 1970 and moved production to their property in 1971. In 1979, Martin sold the Vega name. Some guitars were made under the Vega name during this period, but they mostly made banjos (for more information, see this website). I bought my Vega around 1977 at the Wellesley Music Center, Wellesley, Massachusetts (now defunct; the store, not the Commonwealth), and although it’s a decent guitar, it has had its issues. The Vega was Martin’s inexpensive guitar back then, and I believe the Vega line evolved into Sigma guitars, which Martin discontinued in 2007. It seems that Sigma and Vega coexisted for a few years.

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The resurrection of my Vega (2)

Richard Lent — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:56:37 +0000

The main problem with my Vega was that the neck was attached to the body with dowels, apparently a cost-saving measure. The neck joint was not stable and in the early 1980′s I had it reset by a luthier in Vermont. It held for a while, but continued to be unstable, and the action on the guitar was never very playable. I had given up on the Vega until recently, when I brought it to Owen Davidson, a luthier in Northampton, Massachusetts. Owen performed major reconstructive surgery on the neck joint, sawing off the neck where it joined the body (it had been glued with epoxy during the first reset) and creating a bolt-on neck. He also replaced the saddle, installed a new pickguard, and adjusted the action to where it is playable again. I now use the Vega mainly for open tunings and slide, and the fact that the action is a bit higher than I prefer for fingerstyle playing (I have a Martin 00-18v and a Taylor 415 set up this way) makes it perfect for this style of playing. It has a very clean, almost “crisp” sound, possibly related to the fact that the guitar, in Owen’s words, is “lightly built” (probably a synonym for “cheap”). For this reason I don’t string it with anything heavier than light gauge strings (D’Addario Phosphor Bronze).

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The resurrection of my Vega (3)

Richard Lent — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:55:34 +0000

In the 30 or so years that I have owned this guitar the tuning machines have become tarnished and the finish has become checked, but otherwise it has held up pretty well. I would like to replace the tuners with, say, gold-plated Grover Rotomatics, but the holes in the headstock are 12mm in diameter, whereas all acoustic guitar tuning machines take a standard 10mm hole. So this operation would require that the holes be plugged and redrilled, something that I am not willing to undertake myself at this juncture.

Some additional photos of the Vega (will replace these with better pictures, someday):

• Headstock, front
• Headstock, back
• Tuners, closeup
• Example of finish checking

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Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 18 October 2008

Richard Lent — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:11:26 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 18 October 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Town Hall, Petersham, MA, 12 October 2008, 1 of 2

Richard Lent — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:07:01 +0000

Town Hall, Petersham, MA, 12 October 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Town Hall, Petersham, MA, 12 October 2008, 2 of 2

Richard Lent — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:06:43 +0000

Town Hall, Petersham, MA, 12 October 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 22 March 2008, 1 of 4

Richard Lent — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:20:26 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 22 March 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 22 March 2008, 2 of 4

Richard Lent — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:19:32 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 22 March 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 22 March 2008, 3 of 4

Richard Lent — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:18:26 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 22 March 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 22 March 2008, 4 of 4

Richard Lent — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:17:30 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 22 March 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Esteve classical tuner upgrade (p. 1 of 2)

Richard Lent — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:24:56 +0000

I own an Esteve “Fernandez Valencia” Model classical guitar, made in 2004 and purchased at the Guitar Center in Natick, Massachusetts. Here is a photo (click on thumbnail images to enlarge):

It’s a great guitar, but the tuning machines did not stay in tune very well. You can’t really see them in the picture above, but they looked something like these, which cost about $20:

After a little web-based research, I decided to replace the tuners with gold-plated Schaller machines from Stewart-MacDonald, opting for the luxurious ebony knobs. As part of my research I e-mailed Dr. Ron Fernández, who imports Esteve guitars and customizes the setup. Dr. Fernández informed me that he had installed Schaller tuners before on Esteve guitars and that they should fit.

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Esteve classical tuner upgrade (p. 2 of 2)

Richard Lent — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:00:35 +0000

When the Schallers arrived I de-stringed the Esteve, removed the old tuners, and discovered that the new tuners did indeed fit perfectly. The only modification required was drilling a couple new pilot holes for the screws on each side of the headstock. Usually the phrases “electric drill” and “classical guitar” should never be used in the same sentence, but with some careful drilling the new tuners were installed with no problems. The Schallers are a lot more stable than the original machines, and keep the guitar in tune much better than before the transplant. The $70 tuner upgrade was well worth the effort. However, I have committed the luthieristic heresy of installing German-made, “Hauser-style” tuners on a Spanish guitar. Probably should have installed Fustero tuners, but the cost of those would approach what I paid for the whole guitar. Nevertheless, it has been said of Schaller tuners that they “have no peers in their price range and can compete in all respects with machines costing twice as much.”

Here are some photographs of the new tuners:

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Photo: Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, MA, 24 November 2007

Richard Lent — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:55:28 +0000

Full Moon Coffeehouse, Wendell, Massachusetts, 24 November 2007. Click on thumbnail for larger image.