News

NEWSLETTER - Agosto '10 --------------------------------------- New friends , new pics The Manne Facebook page makes it easy to share manne pic. A very nice series of pics of pics was made by photographer Paolo Borgo. Thank you all for your contributions!
		Old and new friends, new pics.
Julian Scarcella Julian was born in Germany 1995. He has played guitar since he was eight years old and each year he got a new electric guitar, each better than the previous, so after having an Ibanez, a Schecter and a Jem, now he has something he couldn't even imagine...a beautiful Manne Taos. He chose the features including shape, color, neck and hardware. Now he owns the instrument of his dreams. “These are exclusive guitars” he wrote “the feel, the pickups and the build design is something you cannot find anywhere else. I am very happy with the Gotoh Floyd bridge, probably the best Floyd on the market. Nice small body, moderate weight and good balance, and great color and handwork. After checking everything available about guitars, now I have the best I ever found! I consider my Taos my good friend: in the morning when I woke up I see her and I soon strap it on an play. ” Julian will play in August at Sommerfest, PPC Music, Hannover.
		Sinestesia A successful concert in support for the Italian region of Abruzzo hit by an earthquake last year, was held in Trieste with the participation of many bands and artists. The event was organized by a association “Insieme per l' abruzzo” which hosts a huge series of live shows and event to raise funds. Sinestesia has a CD out in Itunes with great prog songs and great performances, Roberto De Micheli uses two Manne Ventura guitars, one black and one see-thu white with black binding. “Manne stuff always raises interest among guitarist in the public that after the show curiously look at my Manne guitars and ask me about them. I cannot be more satisfied than playing Manne!”. Tours coming up at the end of 2010 and beginning 2011.
Agostino Carbognin August blues band is a blues band born in '97performing classic and modern blues that also played at mayor italian blues festival in Pistoia. This year the front line guested three special players for few exciting live shows: Paul Cox on vocals and Mike Summerland on guitar are English blues veterans, and Marco Pandolfi is probably the best Italian blues harmonica player around. Agostino Carbognin recently switched from his classic blues axes to a new Manne Blackbird “about the guitar, I can tell you it really gives me new inspiration, with its very warmand deep tones and killier sustain. It offers much more dynamics than other humbuckers guitars. I'm not overemphasizing that, it is simply the truth. “
		Davide Peron Davide Peron “Mi Rifugio on Tour” was a series of 5 concerts all held in the Alpine Mountain dews in Vicenza's dolomites. Beautiful sunshine enhanced the days that after uphill hikes ended in delicious local meals, followed by a concert. All concerts were crowded, and the public followed with great attention Davide 's songs, highlighted by the performances of fellow players in an informal happy jam style with great interplay, audiance feedback and appreciation of the songs that were performed with differing moods. Acoustic Mannedesign PFM and OSR guitars did good job for Davide. Ever changing guests like photographer, actors, other bands alternates offered always changing shows that many people followed throughout the tour. The success was confirmed by the already doubled dates for next year.
Steve Saluto “Hello everyone. The tour with the Marco Mendoza Band has been great ! Italy, Austria, Greece, Crete Island ... lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who came out at the shows. Back at home, I'm working on an unplugged album for "La Famiglia Syuperstar" and also on my new solo record. "Resurrection" and "La Famiglia Superstar" CD are available at Steve's site We built a very special Blackbird for Steve: Maple neck and fretboard, hard figured Ash body and a 25.5” scale, unusually long for this type of instrument. This gives Steve a twangy, cutting-thru tone to stand out the hard rocking loud rythmic background work. To get a not-too-heavy instrument, we partially reduced the body thickness to get comfort and balance. Steve will play in August at PPC's Sommerfest in Hannover.
For German readers: PPC Sommerfestival at Hannover! Arrivederci Mr. Manne

NEWSLETTER - July '10 --------------------------------------- THIS IS BASS MONTH AT MANNE Uncommonly, this month we just have Bass news! The beautiful picture of Matteo sent thru Facebook lets us well introduce this special Manne July “Bass Month” newsletter. New projects and new developments on the components and design front have come to the final step. Exciting results! Elie Afif		Matteo,the jumping bass player
		SADIST's Bass The Italian metal band Sadist is touring Europe since March. Andy Marchini on bass reports that the new Custom neck-thru is working exceedingly well. A clip from their “GODS of Metal” concert in Turin is available on youtube. They played at HELLFEST 2010 in France, one of the biggest metal festivals in Europe. (www.hellfest.fr) The event was held in Clisson on July 18/19/20, featuring Kiss, Slayer, Deftones, Slash, Alice Cooper, Sepultura, Motorhead, Twisted Sister and many more acts with two main stages and two theme tents (rock hard and terrorizer) for a full three days of metal with more than a hundred shows and stage appearances. “Season in Silence” released last March received a big thumbs up from fans, magazines and critics.
Fabrizio Grossi News from Fabrizio: What a great session! Nels Cline showed up at Fab’s own Noize Factor Studio to lay down some “lefty” tracks on the ever expanding Tommy Bolin 2010 All Stars tribute. Nels has been for a while a powerful force behind alternative geniuses “Wilco” and his playing showed why there is such appreciation for his unique style. Fab and Greg Hampton where extremely pleased with Nels parts and they’re about to welcome the next guest with a big smile on their faces. For the few that are not in touch with Nels incredible work, the guy sound like a mix of The Edge-Adrian Belew and Allan Holdsworth, thrown in a blender and spread around by Jimmy Page’s haunted bow! The Tommy Bolin’s all stars tribute is officially in production. Produced by Greg Hampton with the help of Warren Haynes and Fabrizio Grossi. This record is a staggering collection of almost two hours of never released studio takes and jams, played and produced originally by Bolin himself. All the tracks were rescued and restored, and now some of the world most renowned guitarists and vocalists are leaving their footprints, jamming with the late guitar hero, almost 30 years later. The record will feature performances by Brad Whitford, Steve Lukather, Warren Haynes, Tom Morello, Ben Harper, Slash, Billy Gibbons, John Scofield and many, many more, along with some of the original Bolin’s buddies like Jeff Porcaro, Narada Michael Walden and David Foster.
		Rami Lakkis Originally Lebanese, but born in Dubai. Growing up to different genres in music due to exposure in a multi-cultural society, finding himself drawn to fusion at the beginning of his professional career as a musician. Throughout the years, he has sessioned and recorded with many different types of bands that range from jazz all the way to pop and metal. Currently, he is working on a solo world/fusion album entitled "Origin", as well as writing a third album with his mainstream Soul/funk band ABRI. As well, still doing studio and live session work with different types of Artists. We built for Rami a Manne TREA bass with an Italian yew top and the new Manne blade pickups. Here is his first message: “I received the bass last night, I got back home at 12:00 am and plugged it in.... when I stopped playing it, I realized it was 6:00 in the morning.... Man........ Oh my god..... If the bass was a woman, I would marry her and have 20 kids with her... You are a master my friend.... that's all I have to say.” Then some days after: “As soon as I plugged in the bass I knew this was it, the perfect bass that I was always dreaming of. The combination of the passive Manne blades along with the Italian yew top and korina body results in an explosive and clear crisp sound, not to forget the amount of different EQ options that is offered with the blades and pre-amp. All in all, this bass is a 20 out of 10! By the way, I had a rehearsal yesterday and I plugged the bass into 2 amps..... I had a baby! HAHA! Even the band members were extremely nervous to play with me because of the crystal-clear bass definition! The combination of electronics with the wood is purely as perfect as a full-carat diamond my man.... simple beauty of sound at its ultimate purity.
Bass PICS "I'm an happy Manne bass owner. You can't belive the infinite happiness that it gives me while I play it." Simone Fantacci. Below: From Australia Tracy Stephens.
		Camarda's Woody acousty 7 strings Daniele Camarda’s playing is original and unique. He lately decided to define a new bass with all the features that would offer him new inputs and directions to explore. After some months of engineering, reflections and decisions we started the bass and implemented all the ideas and requests of Daniele with some new ideas in design and construction. Daniele’s sonic requests are very picky, detailed and demanding, and each one of his three Manne (one old custom neck-thru and two Woody’s 34” and 30” scale) has its own character and provides reference points that Daniele keeps as “colors” available on his palette. We tried to apply all our knowledge and know-how to follow his requests, using all of the combinations and our best engineering to get to the final point as precisely as we could. A seven-string bass is not an easy task as many ergonomic factors need to be controlled to let the bass be easy to play and fully usable. String spacing was designed to get good fretboard control and a property neck proportion. The string length was chosen "in between" after a successful previous 33" built revealed a good combination between the classic 34" tone and the 30" Woody with a stronger “acoustic” factor and warmer "woody" tone. The body was chambered in a new combined way, in between our Acoustibass and our Newport chambering, getting off some weight and adding resonance and “acousticity” to be well picked-up by our new 18-volt piezo. But Daniele requested a little more midrange, going a little closer to a “solid body” response. The body top was reduced in thickness and an acoustic purpose element was placed under the bridge location. We redesign a distinctive Manne shape with an asymmetrical body shape to change the angle and position of the neck to a more vertical approach. “Hey Andrea, have been a week by now playing the 7 no stop. Simply the next generation of electric bass guitar. The bass sounds gorgeous unplugged with a gorgeous warm, fast and defined tone. Absolutely even in every register. When plugged its simply something else, the dinamic response is absolutely transparent with no compression, with the simple passive tone control and my touch I'm dailing so many different sounds. I'm taking time to explore every single different register cause it feels like a universe is available, the bass follows every little nuance of my touch. It feels like you melted togerther the 3 previous instrument featuring the best of each. The very surprising thing is this new one sounds as seasoned as the older ones. One more thing, the new body with asimmetric shape feels simply perfect! Thanks from the heart, after years playing the 6 strings I feel I found “my instrument” once again!"
New Blades Pickups After the positive results we had with our blades guitar pickups, we decided to go further and have a specific Manne bass pick-up with the blade design. They are wound by hand directly on the blade instead of on bobbins. This gives the pickup extraordinary sensitivity to playing nuances. The tone is more "musical" and highlights your touch with great dynamic extension. The two coils can be connected in series or parallel giving you two calibrated sounds: the fatter and warm sound when in serial connection and a brighter sharper sound when in parallel. Compared to the usual split/coil, the series-parallel option always use both coils, so it will always perform noise cancellation, being in humbucker mode on both connections. Then we had the pickups tested at shows and here in the lab by players being enthusiastically accepted and appreciated. Initially we installed a 3 way switch to let also the split mode be available, in order to fully explore the tonal possibilities. Everybody considered this setup so usable and delivering “just right” tones that we decided to keep this feature as our standard. Split mode gives slightly less midrange, a kind of V-shaped EQ, very appreciated for dry funk slap sounds. We used these new pickups on Rami Lakkis' Trea giving him tons of tones in a complete passive mode.
		NEW Woody line We decided to take the Daniele Camarda bass idea and combine it with another asymmetrical bass shape we had created in the past for Venetian bass player Luca Vedova, in order to distill a new Manne bass line. So now we have built the new Manne Woody 5 string. The body is not chambered like Daniele’s bass (we call that version Daniele Camarda's Woody “acousty”, with just the piezo pickup), but instead it is a heavy chambered for the classic e-bass bridge and magnetic pickups. Two new blade pickups with two three-way mode switches (series/parallel/split) and a Glockenklang 3-band circuit finalized the electronics design. The result is a highly resonant bass with complex midrange and smoothness, addressed to and very well suited for funk-fusion-jazz, specifically for a higher wearing mode, slightly more angled up. We will soon create a new page for this line on our website.
		Arrivederci!! Mr. Manne

NEWSLETTER - June '10 ---------------------------------------		It is all about passion Good weather finally landed in Europe! Fields of blooming poppy’s inspired me to take a photo set with my son Marco, well matching the flame maple top of a gold Ventura. And the picture somewhat reflects the thoughts I had during and after the great musical instruments show we attended in Bologna. It is all about passion Our small booth was very crowded and many players really wished to come and test the instruments. One of them was waiting for us a few seconds after the opening hour: “I'm here as I must check out your Raven model. I have been dreaming about it for months!”. Really nobody would have bet on this new guitar show in these no-bet times. But the public demonstrated that players are “alive and well”. They want to see, touch and check out the basses and guitars, but it appears that they also want to really know about them too. Tired of just staring at the computer monitor and wished to see and touch it for real? They want to spend their money carefully, so they seem to have a more critical taste. Industrial instrument are getting more and more homogeneous in quality and look. Great instruments are offered at a budget price while top makers have dropped their quality or the quality you expect from them went up with the prices. So we found an increasing understanding about what we are doing. The passion we put into our guitars is getting more and more appreciation, creating buzz and interest. People understand and feel what we mean when we speak of a “difference you have to feel”. Market leaders will remain market leaders but some people are discovering new references, new understandings of the word “quality”, and the full advantage of being directly connected to the craftsman who builds your instrument on custom-order basis. This month you will see some very special instruments we have created. Did you ever see so many ideas and original concepts in so few instruments? We just work on the requests, problem and suggestions of our players and sometimes we add a little ... Manne voodoo factor!!
Real Fire "Fire, the most fascinating and at the same time destructive natural element... Fire left to escape the endless damnation, used to survive the cold, to cook, to light up our streets and to produce steam energy. Fire, to burn my Redwing. What? Yes, you understood properly. It all started from the most diabolical ingenuous mind of Italian luthiery (imho)…..Mr. Manne... I was really sure (probably with the slight contribution of Danny Gatton) that I wished to own a Tele style guitar. One Saturday I decided to visit that “place of temptation” that is his laboratory, in that location that is well suited for it, a “paraiso” of instruments. You know, Italians do it better and Manne is “no bullshit” … bullshit that big names, let's say, are sailing on lately in my opinion... I get to "Manne's kingdom" and I spot a Redwing hanging in the showroom. I said to Mr. Manne "Andrea, I want her, but she has to be dirty, cellar smelling to remind me of whisky, with a Blues aftertaste that will leave us shocked.” He stared at me with his enlightened glance and said: “Donnie, you're out of your element!” and then … “easy: we will burn her!, it will come out fine”. The days after passed with the redwing on my mind and hundreds of emails sent to Manne to get details. One day I came back from work and I found an email that only said : “6/6,30pm, lets fire it”. After ten seconds I was driving at full speed in my car, with my wife sitting on the side telling me to slow down. The black korina was a very light piece and ready for the ceremony. The “devil’s piss”, unknown mix of combustibles was ready too. Dressed up in Hendrix style, the shaman dance and fire went thru, firing the body, letting the Redwing evolution happen, to be reborn from it’s ashes into the “Real Fire” model. Now is has been some time I have been playing it: The sound is balanced and the playability is far superior to any other tele, even to the one that is much more expensive... Please note I refer to the cost, not the quality. As for quality, Manne instruments are simply the best in the world. Fenderist or Gibsonian? I'm Manneist, thanks.” Thanks Fuser! Really sounds like you are not at all objective or impartial, but that's the good thing about a satisfied player! See the guitar in the Accordo's video
		27 frets "Your guitar should be your OWN guitar. You should feel it as a part of yourself, an instrument that lets you express music in your own way. Well: Now I have my OWN guitar. After a long path of ideas and projects, I went to Manne to realize an instrument that could satisfy all my needs. The result is that it does just that and far more! My Taos TR 6-string customized uses a Gotoh Floyd, 27-fret neck, a custom body shape to easily access all the way up to the last extra frets, my own design inlay on the fretboard and printed graphic on the body, Manne blade pickups with the neck one moved out toward the bridge. Devastating sound and always definitive. Initially I installed two passive EMG’s, but they squeal even after a full waxing was applied and the tone was lacking. So I decided to switch to Manne blades that perform perfectly, great attack and detailed response. What can I say?... Thanks Andrea, Stefano, Paolo. Not a guitar but a part of me." Ricky T
Big Hands Giovanni Riva came in our shop confessing he had a problem: His hands are big worker’s hands and all the guitars he tested are impossible for him to play. Nor are they really for the right hand that can play both in arpeggio or with a pick, but for the left hand: the fingers do not have room enough to press correctly single strings. Then is not just the finger’s dimensions but also the palm and finger length that gives problems as the necks do not offer anchorage and support because the hand must stay away from it to reach the fingerboard correctly. He already owns an electric guitar but he has been discouraged in using it and so he was going to give it up. So we had him trying a nylon string that looked to be correctly spaced although the neck was still too thin. From this test we defined with him all other features of a Manne Ventura Satin Special with Ash top and we started building this special neck. With a nut dimension of 54mm and neck thickness beginning at 26mm it was surely the biggest neck we have ever built. String spacing at bridge was typical so there is a strange optical effect of looking to this guitar which lets you know there is something “strange”: the strings run almost parallel!! Giovanni came here when we first started to shape the neck, so it was possible to let him check it and help us to do it just to the most comfortable dimensions for him. Once the guitar was finished Giovanni’s first comment was: “ahhhh!! Finally a guitar I can play!!!” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fiera di Bologna The event was a total success: 28,000 visitors filled the fairground. But one of the factors we noticed was the “quality” of visitors, really interested to learn more, get information and have a trial of the instruments.
		On all our shows, also having this micro booth space, we like to let the people try the instruments as is one of the right occasions to get an idea of Manne guitars. Many people appreciate that, probably because most of the other booths have demonstrators and do not welcome people put their hands on guitars. Then, with the much appreciated assistance of Nats Natali, we were totally devoted to questions and requests, to try to understand what the player is looking for or the best instrument to let him try. We had a limited but good selection of instrument. The “Redwing Realfire” had enormous attention from all kinds of visitors. See the Accordo's video: Is one of the most seen from Bologna musicshow!!
		On Main stages we invited to play Davide Peron, the songwriter that “occasionally” sports Mr. Manne on guitar (they defined me “self-endorsed” on the daily show news), but with then great musicians: Giovanni Forestan on bass clarinet, Arrigo Axia on drums and Alessandro Filippi on bass . Then a revelation was the voice of Claudia Valtinoni with Toni Moretti with his fretted 6-string Manne Acoustibass with the special guest Knagui from Dallas TX who was so kind to attend the show. The duo and then the trio performed standards with arranged bass parts base textured with Claudia's incredible voice, and the great performance versatility of Knagui who filled the stage with his groove. Roberto Dalla Vecchia took his talent to the noisy stage, (a saturated Hammond and a fusion band was playing nearby) with attitude and was able to delight the public with his own old and new fantastic compositions, with the special appearance of Knagui singing “This Land Is Your Land”. Wow! Gospel meets country!!! Ride on guys!

Arrivederci!!! With passion and fun. Mr.Manne

NEWSLETTER - May '10 --------------------------------------- Bass on Tracks Daniele Camarda, one of the most original and innovative Italian bass players, after recording the tracks for international pop star Miguel Bosè, being always open to learn and play in different environments, is now playing for a series of concerts in Lebanon with international musicians from a wide variety of cultures and musical traditions. The new Bosè release “Cardio” is a mix of synth bass and Camarda's electric Manne “Woody Bass” Acoustibass. Daniele sent us the parts he wished to highlight as his preferred tones and results in this smart pop field. Daniele appreciated the great tones of his Manne bass and quality engineering delivered them in fine clarity on the CD, from which they can be fully appreciated. The bass tone can also be audible but to a lesser degree with a good headset on the Youtube files. CARDIO:Nice bass tone on this track, sounds like synth, but it is actually the long-scale Manne Woody Bass. Around the 3rd minute there are some nice variations of bass lines. POR TI: Arpeggio: the low note is the low D on the B-string using standard tuning. The subsonic quality of the bass comes from the Acoustibass piezo and a very light touch. Result = Huge Sound! JURAME: I did the bass line. Then from 4:40 a short solo followed by ornaments in a mandolin style technique.
		AUSSIE'S Hussy Here are some updates from Tracy Stephens and the Hussy Hicks!!!! We won the Byron Bay bluesfest busking competition, now we can play a set at the festival "East Coast Blues & Roots Festival", one Australia's biggest music festivals, alongside some of the biggest acts in the world such as Buddy Guy, Crowded House, Jack Johnson and many more... :) (there is a nice photo of the bass in the paper too :) ) ... We also won $2,000 recording at a big studio in Byron Bay, 301 studios... so we are very very happy.... We had our CD launch on Wednesday night too, which was a huge success !! Then we are off to West Australia for the Fairbridge Festival, another massive festival for Australia... things are good :)
Mauro's KISS It can happen that in a hard rock concert, with gigantic hard rocking guitars and Marshall stacks, an acoustic set successfully cut thru it all. Mauro “Nats” Natali, our friend and promoter with his project “Reason to Kiss”, hit the stage of ONE NITE KISS, the main KISS band's Italian fan convention event. Mauro and Susanna Minghetti offered with just a voice and a guitar, rearranged versions of classic KISS songs. The Manne doubleneck and Semiacustica perfectly fits the acoustic dimension dynamically with a rock attitude. The doubleneck is a Taos style derived instrument that has a 12-string side with a semi-acoustic chamber and piezo together with magnetic pickups, while the 6-string side is purely solid body electric power. “For many years I have trust the acoustic sounds I can achieve from my Manne guitars as they always give me what I need: a big sound, and big versatility and dynamics, with comfort, playability and balance, allowing me to obtain in an acoustic version of licks that I would normally play on an electric guitar. The build-quality of these guitars lets me go on the stage fully assured that they will support me sonically, and with their ease and great style, also work perfectly in situations where the musical target and iconographic style of instruments is so different. Keep up the good work!!!”
		Valerio “Fluido” Celentano Valerio is a freelance bass player busy on many projects: The band Hesitant Ballad is releasing a CD and currently playing around Europe in a mini-tour. Valerio’s Mannedesign MALIBU was noticed particularly for his sound: “Big great sound! But is not Fe....?” Then Valerio also played in CSIC, one of the best tribute bands for the Italian rock artist Vasco Rossi: He will play at the national gathering of fans and in some important Italian clubs. He is also planning to tour with other Italian artists. You can see his first approach to the Mannedesign Malibu on the youtube video.
Horea Rocks Mozart “Andrea, 12 April, Bucharest, 4,800 people inside the Romanian Palace Hall. Mozart Rocks at the 4th Edition in Bucharest. The eight top Romanian guitar players were playing Mozart, Bizet, Strauss, Bach, Rossini, Verdi, Carl Orff, Brahms along with Kashmir, Amberdown, High Hopes and many more songs. The players played together with the Romanian National Philharmonic Orchestra” Enjoy a distorted Horea Crisovan baritone Manne Ventura playing in a symphonic context in this youtube video.
		Manne Day in Versilia A nice gathering happened at the end of April in the surroundings of Viareggio, along the beautiful coast of Lido di Camaiore. Andrea Fascetti, a bass player from La Spezia organized a "Manne Day" at a recording studio and the rehearsal room of Piero Pellicanò, where students and players had the chance to check out and play some Manne instruments that we provided for the occasion. The event has been very positive and many attendees enthusiastically welcomed and enjoyed the Manne instruments defined by most of the guitar and bass players as being of "uncommonly high quality and feel compared to industry standards". Also Mannedesign instruments were revealed as being incredible values. In the evening (after a hot soccer uefa semifinal that Italian Inter team won) Andrea Fascetti and his trio hit the stage for some music followed by a jam with the students and assembled players. Thanks To Andrea and Piero to let this wonderful event happen! Now we have some new Manne friends in Versilia!
Arrivederci! Mr. Manne

NEWSLETTER - April '10 --------------------------------------- Flowering camellias just in front of our door at the Manne shop probably inspired our new guitars colors which we presented at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. “Perfectly matching the color of your music" is the motto chosen for Manne's 2010 German advertising campaign. New colors for the most striking and sexy Manne instruments we have ever created. See them in the Gallery page
		Musikmesse The German show this year reflected the current economic environment, but our booth gathered curious players and addicted-to-Manne fans. A guitar player with wet eyes that confessed to me “I fell in love with these guitars from the first time I saw them in a magazine... and now being here and seeing the real thing makes me realize it is really a TRUE love...” The comments and the considerations on the guitars and the basses after the players had the opportunity to play them was even more enthusiastic, from the renowned Manne playability and neck-feel that is commonly considered one of the best available anywhere, to the tone, fidelity and dynamic accuracy of the custom-wound pickups reacting powerfully to the resonance of wood. Mannedesign instruments revealed their qualities and raised strong interest. Not the average Asian quality, but rather the best industrial quality and fine Italian design. Old friends, new friends, good contacts.
The news we presented are all in the video that the fine Accordo staff put online almost in real time. A very nice doubleneck, simple but very usable, beautiful, light weight and balanced. A new LP bridge that completely locks to the body with the tailpiece installed flat on the body, resulting in a greatly improved tone contribution from the vibrations of the body wood. A finish “rusty & dirty” on a bass that we previously FIRED!!! So actually the average meaning of FIREBURST should be reconsidered... Following the Hendrix concept, we let the black korina body BURN, leaving traces of fire on the wood.		We take all tasks very seriously: When we say a guitar is finished in "Fireburst", we truly mean "burst by fire"...
Fabrizio Grossi News from Fabrizio's Website I couldn’t be happier, this bass it’s a monster…. actually all of Manne’s production are monsters…. but this guy, the Malibu-5 is now MY monster !!! Please check out Manne Guitars website and you’ll know what I am talking about. As I say: Manne…..fuggeddaboutit !!! Finally the End Chapter of Pushking video clip for the song “It’ll Be OK” that will also feature Nuno Bettencourt. What a day and whatta guy. Billy F. Gibbons is the best. A great new friend who has contaminated me already with his passion for Hot Rods. After the shoot we stopped by the Hot Rods National show at the Fair Grounds in Pomona, California….. it was like being a kid in a toy story. Keep ‘em coming Willy G !
		Pittarello Pittarello is one of the main Italian chain shoe stores and their gigantic ads are really renowned in Italy. Well … it was a surprise to receive the news from one of our players that one of our Manne Blackbird guitars will be spotted on the new spring summer ads campaign. The guitar is a single humbucker at the bridge Blackbird in hi-gloss white with black binding, which very well fits into the ad style. After we published the news on our facebook page the typical comment was “ oh...sorry I didn't noticed the guitar” or some players offered to give guitar lessons to the model... Thanks to Casey to let it happen!!
Daniele Camarda Miguel Bosè has been a force in Latin music in a career that has spanned 21 albums, roles in more than 35 films, his own television show, and work as a theatre director. With Picasso as his godfather and Ernest Hemingway among his family friends, Bosé grew up in the arts, constantly travelling from his Panama homeland to Milan, New York, London, Paris, and Madrid. He made his film debut at the age of 15, and at age 21, he began his singing career which eventually lead to international pop stardom Daniele Camarda played the bass on Miguel Bose’s new CD, released this month. His two Manne “Woody” basses, a modified Acoustibass that sports a single piezo pick-up only (no magnetic pick-up), and a second bass with a more semiacoustic-woody tone due to a different chambering and bridge function. Daniele is enthusiastic about the results and the sound engineers for the project reportedly expressed great words on the basses.
		Sadist “Season in Silence”, the new Sadist full length album, will be out in March 2010 licensed by Liveglobal/Self. The album was produced, engineered and mixed by Tommy Talamanca for Nadir Music. Sadist is going to present it live during the Italian Gods of Metal Festival in Milan (Italy) on March 21st. This event will be the first of many European festivals in which Sadist will take part during Spring/Summer 2010. Andy is totally proud of his new Manne Custom Neck-Thru 6-String bass. The recording session confirmed it has the perfect solid sound he needs, and with a killer look.
Davide Pezzin Davide, bass player for popular Italian artists last year and early this year, is busy touring Italy with Cristiano De Andrè, son of Fabrizio, one of Italy’s milestone songwriters. “De André canta De André" is the name of this show, where the son gives tribute to the father's poetry and songwriting, adding with his talent and personality a substantial musical and artistic contribution. The success was evident, booking a busy non-stop tour since last summer, all sold out, nominated and awarded tour of the year and recorded in a special DVD. During the set, Davide took very inspired solo interludes with his Manne Acoustibass-5, giving a perfect demonstration of the warm but defined sounds of this unique bass, which Davide has appreciated since the first time he tested it, and that he always keeps ready for his broad canvas of sound.

NEWSLETTER - February '10 ---------------------------------------
TAKE NOTE! write: "VISIT MANNE BOOTH at 4.1 / E15, March 24-27, on Frankfurt's MUSIKMESSE" And we will exibit at Music Italy show Bologna 15-17 May Booth A42, pad.32 "Made in italy"
In the picture: Gabriele Porta with Matteo's Father		6 April 2009: Italian earthquake at l'Aquila The most recent and one of the most severe Italian earthquakes had the final data reporting 308 casualties, 1600 wounded, 200 of those in severe conditions and 65,000 homeless. National and international attention were given to immediate work on the reconstruction and preservation of cultural heritage and historical building, as well as to restoring the residential structures. Gabriele Porta, owner of the shop “Il Metronomo” of Roseto recently informed us that in September, five months after the tragic disaster, a good piece of news came from the “Red Zone” of L'Aquila, the most damaged central part of the city. After the removal of debris from a two-story house, thanks to the good and careful work of a smart firefighter, a Manne gigbag was extracted. After returning it to the owner Matteo, that anxiously opened the zipper, here came the statement that the guitar is in perfect working order, with no damage. “This guitar is earthquake proof!” Matteo proudly informed us. To Matteo and his family we send all our wishes for a return to normality, pleased also by the notes of the Taos Standard.
Mark A. Walker Mark is hitting the road: After a live CD/DVD Recording in Washington, D.C. in January and a date at PLCCA in Chicago in February, Mark will perform: Wednesday, February 10 & Thursday, 11 - Will Downing @, GerILYoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco, CA Saturday, February 13 - Will Downing @ The Grove in Anaheim, CA Thursday, March 4, Friday 5 & Saturday 6 - Steven Ford's Music Symposium in Newark DE Saturday, March 6 - Will Downing @ UNCF in Austin, TX Mark can be seen every Sunday and several other days of the week via the International Broadcast of Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church which airs on several affiliate stations including, but not limited to BET, TBN, TV-One, & The Word Network.
		New LP bridge improvement We did a new development on MLP6, our LP style stoptail bridge and tailpiece. The Bridge is now completely locked to the stud, and the stud is locked to the insert in the wood, giving rock solid stability and excellent sound transmission through the body. We also offer on request the string thru solution for the LP bridge style.
Emiliano Sicilia Emiliano has a very unique Manne feature. He plays a total of 18 strings on manne instruments. But not on 3 guitars as you possibly imagine. He plays an 8-string and a 10-string. Emiliano recently toured Spain with his band “Regardless of Me”. At every gig, Emiliano got inquiries and lots of attention on the 10-string Ventura from fellow bands sharing the stage, technicians and audience members. From the time he opened the gigbag before the sound check, a small crowd was all around him and the guitar, asking about the tuning, the technique and its features. There has been always delays for their sound check! All people are fascinated by the sound, harmonic capabilities and incredible beauty of the guitar. Their tour is continuing and after Belgium and Italy in January and February they will have several dates in Croatia in March and several in Spain during April. In May four dates are booked in the UK with a live set on the 4th of August at Bloodstock Open Air in the United Kingdom. This summer a California leg of the tour will be defined thru Red Dragon Booking Agency
		China A trip to china for me, means surprises and the discover of unexpected faces of this big country. I'm not just talking about fried honeybees for dessert, or crazy busy land developments and highway constructions. It's also an hike on foggy and green hills thru Bonsai-like shaped trees and no-mercy ping-pong passionate games in the homeland of this sport. No facebook connection and a terrific no-rule traffic, even worse than a critic traffic day in Naples . No sunshine at all for fifteen days, not even a single ray. It's also meeting passionate engineers, workers and experts of guitar building, the people working on Mannedesign project, giving their best to offer great instruments, with great results. Stay tuned for news.

NEWSLETTER - January '10 --------------------------------------- Roberto dalla Vecchia Roberto's last CD, "UNKNOWN LEGENDS" was very well accepted and got very good resonance among players and on the media. Minor7th site wrote: “Dalla Vecchia is a fine picker, and his songs show fine song craft “. German “Akustik Guitarre” included one of his songs in the CD compilation of the magazine. For those who speaks German here is the article. Roberto is planning now for next summer, tours in the company of his fellow Mark Cosgrove in Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany.
		The SUN The SUN is the new project of one of most interesting hard rock-punk Italian bands with Lemma at the Bass. Using now Italian as their main language (but they will also release material in English) the music is a perfect mixture of rocking guitars and catchy melodies, with the spice of modern electronics. After years of world tours and a bunch of CD’s released, the band catalyzed their new input and inner inspirations to open up a new chapter full of sincere, warm and positive energy that their name fully expresses: “The Sun”. Signing with “Barley Arts”, the main Italian live management company, was a reward for their years on the road, gradually building up recognition and fans. Upcoming shows and new CD with a fresh attitude.
Astarte Syriaca Andrea Neri Sex - De Humana Natura is the new CD released by Astarte Syriaca. The new work is a concept album that is based on the narration of a violent and intricate story that reveal the basic way of life and tools to rule the power by the crime. For the presentation of this CD, the band produced a short movie about this concept that will be projected during the concert, with the result of a poly-artistic show, where movie, video art, music, and lyrics melt together in a unique event. Astarte Syriaca already explored the connection between theater and concerts with the show “Jesus Christ Superstar heavy metal opera”, where the metal arrangements where highlighted by theatrical elements. The Movie “Sex De Humana Natura” was realized with students of the Theater school of Genova, endorsed by many private and public institutions of the Liguria region in Italy.
		Nick Muneratti “A fantastic instrument, with a meaty and bold sound but also crystal defintion, incredibly versatile sonically, with a perfect body and neck... I can play any genre of music with my Manne Newport, and it will always be appropriate in any situation!” Nick , born '81, studied bass, harmony and arrangement. Played live with James Thompson, Brett Manning and won with his own band the '09 Bordighera Jazz Festival, opening for Solomon Burke. He teaches in several music schools and is currently recording a debut album for the band Tremo.
SADIST Sadist is one of the historic Italian bands, rocking the stages since1991. In '96 they released “Tribe” an album that was a European and Japanese hit, that took them on tour with they video on european circulation on Viva an MTV. In '98 “Fools and Dolts” went on major European TV and they played at Wacken Open Air, the biggest metal festival in Europe. In 2009 they were opening act for the Amon Amarth tour. The lefty Andy Marchini used a Manne custom neck-thru in maple (in his picture) for a long time. But now the time has come for a new beast: a new Custom neck-thru with maple neck and korina/walnut sides. “My new Manne is in my arms just at the right time: Is the time to record the new Sadist album and it should be a hammer, balanced but able to cut thru the mix of drums and distorted guitars, but without loosing character and clean sonic virtue. The bench (studio) test was pass with A+ (10 +) , now I can't wait to test it on stage on the upcoming tour.