The Angella Americana

Luthiers seem to be somewhat stabilized with a given set of precedents these days; I haven’t seen too much that isn’t a copy of the last generation of innovations, starting with Smallman and proceeding to Humphrey, Ruck and Dammann. Adrian Lucas rattled my senses with the iconographic looking and thunderous radial brace, Kenny Hill, as a modern Dr. Frankenstein of the guitar, robbed the ideological graves of everyone to produce a really fine culmination of what had recently been advanced but nothing has really come down the pike to knock on the door of my ear.
I have made some final determinations concerning woods and arrived at spruce and Indian rosewood as my preferred combination; have also looked back to the 7-fan brace top construction as probably the most tonally responsive setup. The lattice-braced guitars lacks the width of tonal color of the 7-fan but is sufficient to broadcast my music being punchier and louder. Two of my favorite luthiers, Greg Byers and Kenny Hill have recently made guitars with lattice-bracing so I am confirmed by their ears that it is sufficiently robust in transmitting good tone since both luthiers are dedicated to this cause.
Brazilian rosewood and spruce more often than not leave me cold. Even with the tonally robust 7-fan bracing and a nice piece of spruce, Brazilian slices a bit much in attack. It can be louder than Indian rosewood but the difference can be small. Sustain can be just a touch longer but to me not as musical in the decay, sweeping on certain notes to an unwanted harmonic for me. Indian rosewood has been said by some luthiers, to be unto itself and other rosewoods like Brazilian, Madagascar, Bolivian and my favorite of this bunch, Mexican rosewood seem so similar in sound as to befuddle a blind hearing test. Indian is distinct and sweeter than these others without lacking the sharp clarity but it is a different clarity that seems to me to be drenched in warmth. Each guitar is also unto itself so generalizations are only for this discussion.
And what are we talking about here? The new Angella Americana, a guitar I named and screamed for its existence. Randy, with his last guitar that I reviewed instantly turned out to be my favorite builder these days so I asked for something in line with my sound sensibilities and visual aesthetics. With German spruce and Indian rosewood this guitar was made in line with my tonal thinking and even compositional needs for a full and robust sound that has a tremendously beautiful sustain and musical decay. Musical decay is a term I learned from Randy.
What do I mean by musical decay? I alluded to it in the statement about Brazilian and the other rosewoods that mimic Brazilian, that they decay in ways that are not left with the fundamental pitch usually going to the 5th as in the case of the second “A” on the guitar at the 7th fret 4th string and as well the first “A.” These pitches have decays that leap to the 5th, an “E,” most commonly on guitars. I have used carbon fiber strings to eliminate this, preferring the Savarez Alliance strings to help fix this “problem.” Some consider this not a problem and this may be the true reason that one might call a guitar sweet, but for me the 5th of a given note is not the note I played, as a composer I am very particular about notes.
The Angella is a 9-braced top in German spruce so this is the starting point towards the tight braced guitar forwarded by Ignacio Fleta in the 1950’s. Fleta was a cello maker and repairer who kept running the cello of Pablo Casals. It is no wonder that his basic building technique was to make the guitar like a violin with the body and neck made separately and joined by a dovetail. Fleta also used a 9-fan bracing pattern that made his guitars so large and so mysterious sounding that Segovia and John Williams used them for performance and recording. I contend that it is really the first modern guitar since Torres was just a culmination of building trends; Fleta stepped away from prevailing building trends and did something totally different.
You could say the Angella Americana is the best of both worlds, one world being the tonally robust and clear Hauser, and the other the loud and large sounding Fleta. The 9-braced top is placed in a body similar in size to Hauser, although a little bit bigger. Fleta used a large and heavy body. What happens in this marriage is purely astounding with the Americana!
I will say right off the bat in assessing the sound of this guitar is that it is the best sounding guitar I have heard in seven or so years. It is remarkable in its ability to be crystalline and in the same piece of music, be absolutely sweet depending on the right hand’s disposition. This is so hard to achieve, usually a guitar has one of the other, but never the two in abundance! I believe my choice of Indian rosewood made the difference because this is a guitar more to my tastes than the same guitar with Brazilian rosewood that I reviewed earlier.
A hallmark in the Angella guitar is the robust attack, beautiful sustain and decay, and this guitar has a “g” string that is the most abundant one I have heard on any guitar. Using Augustine Imperials, Randy’s bench string, the “g” is as present as the “d” and this is remarkable to have this string speak so well. This should interest contrapuntal players in that this is usually the weak string in counterpoint so most players do something about this string; they may avoid it or balance the notes on other strings to not overbear on the poor “g.” The basses are thunderous and the trebles are so clear and sweet on the Americana. This guitar is hard to describe in traditional metaphors and adjectives. It is like milk and dark chocolate combined and at your command.
More than likely it is the tighter bracing that makes this kind of speaking possible although I haven’t heard a lattice guitar that has such a present “g” string that will speak open, and at any fret and even above the 12th fret. Another aspect of this tight bracing is the guitar is able to speak at low volumes and it does not “crap” out at high volumes and this to me is the worst characteristic of looser braced guitars.
Everything is a sacrifice in balancing a classical guitar into an instrument that has enough to speak, scream and whisper in a large hall that may be a faultily built one at that. This is a thing that only a master luthier can do. Making the guitar louder, usually by tightening the bracing and manipulating the top all the way to the major manipulations of Smallman, can sometime dispense with some of the beautiful higher harmonics of tonal response. A master luthier is one that has instincts and experience to go forward into a new area of design and this is what Randy Angella has done in using a 9-brace with a body more akin to a Hauser than a Fleta. This is breakthrough in my opinion.
Being a firm American in all ways that characterize the national personality, and old fashioned type of American that is extremely proud of being such, a composer that is involved in Americanisms and searching for a national aesthetic in a classical guitar, I almost despise Moorish rosettes. I am not a Spaniard and I don’t perform or compose Spanish music. The beauty of the Moorish rosette and Spanish guitar music is undeniable but I would rather have no rosette than a Moorish one so I asked Randy to “Americanize” a rosette and to look towards our great Native American heritage without copying. After all Native America IS America and most of us are but transports to this country by our ancestors. The rosette is only the finishing touch to a guitar that is an American one, made by a bold explorer in the American spirit of experimentation, another firm American that has found an American sound and visual identity.
Randy’s guitars are very reasonably priced for a completely handmade article. He has been involved in making guitar since the 1970’s and the price you pay for his guitar is like getting his tremendous experience and originality for free.