News from Mr. |
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| 28/11/05 Sometimes I receive mails that go more or less like this: "When about a new editorial?" or "So...any news?". And then I realize how long it was since my last editorial and how many things I have to tell. So...a big thank to the affectionate readers following us; now, let's go for the news...freewheelingly..a little bit like it is at the barber shop (by the way, lately I've been to one, and I did have a good cut with the past) Journey to the States. At the end of June I embarked on a three week trip in California, from San Diego to San Francisco, going through some other minor "saints", visiting dealers and meeting musicians, and receiving compliments and gratifications. In the Los Angeles area now we have a new selling point, Louis Laurenti's "The Instrument Connection" (we nicknamed him Luigi because of his abruzzi-italian origins). In San Francisco bay I met Art Thompson from Guitar Player Magazine, the legendary magazine to which I was a subscriber since the 80's, and from which I remember the highly valuable pages of Craig Anderton and Dan Erlewine, and the first interview with Mr. PRS who at the time was working with a little chisel one of his guitar's top. Art had just concluded the past week the bench test and review of our Taos Special and very kindly had invited me to the editorial department to introduce me to the other editors as well as to Bass Player Magazine editors, talking about (guess what) guitars, prospectives and news. Then, together with our local area rep Sean Kruithoff, I visited several shops, managing to define another selling point, San Mateo's Gryphon Strings, where we have now available Manne instruments. A quick yet cordial visit to Livermore's Fine Fretted Friends, where Michael Ferrucci has welcomed us as warmly as ever, and where our new Ventura Special models were highly appreciated. I was even able to attend some of Manne's finest musicians reharsals: Trip Devices' Brian Wright with his Taos Special, with an incredibly potent sound thanks to his custom designed two-channel amplification rig (one clean and the other one distorted), through which his rhythm picking has incredible dynamic tones. And Jason and Troy Tipton, the "diverse" twins, in the sense that one play the bass and the other play the guitar, both of them with the popular bay area band ZeroHour. With excellent technique and good composition, these guys offer some progressive metal with intricate rhythms and a powerful sound. Traveling back to Los Angeles, I met with Fabrizio Grossi, and we went to meet Glenn Hughes, to try out new some new solutions to perfect his instrument. But more about this later. Going back to Guitar Player's September review of the Taos Special, I said to Mr Thompson that after 18 years such a review looks like a gallantry medal; being compared to a Ferrari doesn't happen everyday! Art had kept the instrument for several months (we thought he had sold it!). Instead he checked out the guitar carefully in differnt situations, in several live nights and in jam sessions, remaining sincerely satisfied. You can read the interview in the page GP Taos test . |
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 . . .. Jasun Tipton ........................................... Karen Zoid |
New
Manne artists-CD: I have on my desk some Manne
related freshly out CD's . I cannot help pointing them
out for everybody attention, linking them at their
website for more information. From the States: Fabrizio Grossi and his Manne "Godfather Bass" is now with Starbreaker, with Tony Harnell (TNT) and John Macaluso(Ark, Malmsteem). Their first video from "Starbreaker" is rotating on MTV. Zero Hour: "A Fragile Mind" is the new CD of this powerful Californian Progressive Metal band, and "Seduction", a new CD also for their guitarist Jasun Tipton playing his new Manne seven string Ventura. His brother Troy now plays a custom 5-string Newport in solid korina. |
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| Double news
for Alex Masi: "In the Name of Beethoven"
CD, playing his custom Manne Semiacustica, and "Ritual
Factory" as MCM , Masi-Coven-Macaluso, where he
plays a Taos Special. From South Africa: Karen Zoid, one of the most popular voices in South Africa, plays a Semiacustica in her last work titled "media". On the CD notes it reads: "Karen Zoid is a proud owner of a Manne hand-made, Italian Guitar.". Tammy Wilson, bass and vocals of Southern Gipsy Queen, very young blues band, now plays a Manne Soulmover on their new work "Sweet Voodoo". From Italy: "Neaver Heaven" is the title of Fear of Fours's promo (from Bunkker): 4 top musicians from the metal scene proposing "melodic and acoustic death metal with a nice flavour of progressive rock". Mirko Nosari plays a Manne Taos LP. Sun eats hours,Sun Eats Hours, punk band from Veneto which last year has embarked on a successful european tour, has put out "The Last One". Lemma at the bass with his Manne Trea. |
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Another new model that has been successful is the 7-string Ventura. Body in Korina, with floyd or fixed bridge. We have also decided to produce from now on all our bass necks with laminate and sides in ash, after seeing the very good results. We started to introduce it since the beginning of last year (see past editorial). So we claim the paternity of the idea, seeing that, as far as I know, we are the first to have introduced it. The contribution of ash to the sonics of the instrument has been widely recognized, adding a certain kind of sparkle usually associated with active instruments. We are also experimenting a new method of multi-chambering the guitars with a top overlay, to further lighten the instrument. The results in a short time. | ||
| New
bridge for 4 strings bass: (and soon available
on the 5-string): our faithful bridge builders have
produced a new bass bridge to our specs. Our new bridge
is made out of milled brass with 3D settling controlled
saddles and supporting string inserts in hard steel. The
strings can optionally come through the body or from the
upper part of the top. It is massive and can be
completely blocked, assuring an excellent sustain and
vibration transmission and special sonic qualities. This
bridge is also available separately as accessory. Glenn Hughes: We will soon be offering a second active Soulmover model to supplement the passive model. It will include new EMG pickups, a new bridge, and a new active circuit for an incredibly rock bass. For the active model, we will use our new 4-string bridge, adding sustain and sonority with full adjustments and blockage of every movable part. Our choice for the pick up is an active EMG P and J with active circuits and two band EQ. |
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Glenn has had the possibility to test it
"directly in the field" on the tours of Spain
and Portugal this October, with Chad Smith from the Chili
Peppers on the drums. Glenn has just said: "Perfect!".
Two new colors and official presentation at the January
2006 NAMM. A bomb! Note: The classic passive model will
remain available as well in its two vintage colors. |
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| Swiss
distribution.Swiss distribution. "California
Music" shop has opened in Losanna on the 15th of
October and will follow the distribution of our
instruments in Switzerland. We wish Angelo Ticli a future
full of satisfactions. EKO: in 1980, seven years before opening Manne, having finished the industrial technical institute I didn't have a precise idea of the job I would have taken. So I applied for many jobs in our area of Italy. But seeing that I was filling my diaries of drawings of guitar palettes and bodies, I also applied for a job at EKO in Recanati. Fate wanted that exactly in that year EKO closed down, as I found out on holiday in Conero a little time after, reading a sign hanging on the factory doors. And understood why they hadn't called me...! Now that fact is back on my mind for a very specific reason, making me do some sort of semi-philosophical considerations on the fact that life can be curious indeed, with coincidences that with time can be interpreted and put together with a precise sense... In conclusion, thanks to Mauro from Milan's Lucky Music who has acted as contact, a new project with the legendary EKO of Recanati has developed. For the moment everything is top secret! But stay tuned. |
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| Journey
in South Africa: from last June Andrč Mohlen is
our distributor in South Africa. Seeing that prospectives
seem propitious and Andre has started very well. I was invited for a trip to shops and meeting some musicians. So at the end of october I was away for 10 days on the African continent. Talking about South Africa is not easy. It resembles California: big skies, large roads, happy weather, big shopping malls, modern cities, but then some other particoulars, like houses and villages completely secured with big walls and razor wire, many unemployed walking along the roads and many other signals that tell about a country that is leaving the past behind, looking forward, looking for an equilibrium mined by poverty and wild immigration from all over Africa. My impression is that people feel their role as part of the process to define the way to go, defining the realtionships, knowing that the past has to be changed, to lead to a modern country which has yet to define its future, with 5 official languages, and trying to find the best balance for a positive developement, while the extreme poverty and extreme wealth are living side by side. Anyway... some nice shop with competent people can be found, and above all many music groups and a lot of live music. Many bars are music oriented and the majority of the bands play their own material, creating an interested and attentive public, which at times ends singing the songs and dancing on the tables. Bands record their own music, and striving for their own music. Andrč is very passionate about the instruments, and making a good work especially among good musicians, that appreciated our quality and ideas. I met Gareth and Tammy Wilson (this is a rock'n'roll couple!) of the Southern Gypsey Queen, Karen Zoid, Wade Williams and Martin Schofield of the Wonderboom. This should make us thinking, in this moment of acute crisis of Italian live music. Could be the copyright people fault, the owners fault, the public fault; but witnessing here all this enthusiasm it makes me think "aren't we in Italy tired of the usual cover bands playing tributes to the same rock stars? Isn't there any interest for real Artists who have something to say? Listening to something new, with an artistic effort that surely put a quality filter which can represent a challenge for many groups? Ten days quickly go by, and surely have left many things and many images. Leaving those 30 degrees with zero humidity to find the airport in Venice immersed in fog makes me appreciating those images even more. So... thanks Andrč, I just hope to be back soon! Thanks for the attention and thanks for having made this intercontinental flight faster... |
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Arrivederci! Mr. Manne |
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Arrivederci!
Mr. Manne
