Gordon's Notes
~ June 2010
Guitars I Play
1) Nick Apollonio
When we were in our late teens and twenties, Sam Tibbetts and I built a couple of experimental guitars; we built a nylon stringed six-string and he built a twelve-string, We were trying to find a way to build the tone we heard in my mother’s old Spanish-type guitar built by R.A. Mango in NYC. The twelve–string that Sam made had startling tone and power. We had never heard a steel-strung instrument with such warmth of tone .
So when Nick Apollonio, just out of college, asked if he could build some instruments based on those designs, we agreed, and he took the experiments farther. He experimented with shapes, (some I had drawn, some of his own, and a few rather far-fetched ideas Sam and I contributed) as well as different woods and finishes.
And he has continued to experiment with all these things for many years. I’ve accused him of never building two instruments alike, but then, I have never done two concerts alike…our problem being curiosity, I suppose. He still uses a couple of my ideas (I’m proud to say) such as the “Bell” shape and the 4-piece, balanced bridge that can take the torque off the face of a twelve-string. He builds steel sixes more lively and voiceful than the ones you play in the music shops; he also builds the Laud/ Laudo, (A little Spanish/Portuguese 12-double-strung instrument) and the sweet, lifting, lilting, 12-string 'Bell' we developed for Annie Muir years ago. (I finally had him build one for me and love it. I will play it into my “dottage,” as Capt. Kennedy used to say.) Nik also builds citterns that are known halfway round the world, bitterns, guitterns, lady-guitars, harps, double-harps, fiddles, a Viol d’Amore, a Viol da Gamba (for me) … and boats, when business is slow.
He's totally fearless regarding what he'll try, so some instruments have guarantees, others not. I've called him the Evel Kneivel of the luthier world – a man who's not afraid to crash and burn as long as he learns something, and a man who achieves absolute wonder when he "lands good." He doesn't build for "pretty" so he won't compete with factory –made instruments – there can be minor flaws in his finishes, etc. He builds for voice – so precious for some of us – not flash. I dearly regret the tendency of young singers to buy some big-name, big-priced, shiny new instrument with a pleasant, unexceptional tone and then play that same sound behind (or over) every song they sing. I get bored with that in short order. I know those are built to be “safe” instruments, but it’s a rare one that you can reach into and find its heart, or your passion. I wish someone could tell them (as my aunts told me) “Go to guitar-shops and pawn-shops and play a thousand of them: when you can’t put one back on the rack, that’s the one for you.” When I'm in music stores, I still like to take something off the wall and try a tune on it but I usually lose interest, unless it is an exceptional nylon-stringed guitar. But Nick has developed the 'Twelve' into a pipe-organ, an orchestra in a suitcase, with a warmth, richness and variety of tone to match the classical guitar. (Indeed, his engineering is such that some of his faces that carry 12 strings are thinner and more responsive than classical guitars… just tap the face with your finger-pads: it's like having a chat with a talking-drum.)
Now I have instruments I know I can never "master." Their voices are so rich in textures, their tonal variations so subtle, that when I pick one up I am always surprised at the first, second, and third sounds they make. And after all these years it is hard to walk by the wall or post where one is hanging and not take it my arms. I'm still cobbling textures for songs, still coming up with ideas, sounds, etc. (example, my recent CD: “Other Eyes”) and whatever I think to ask of these instruments, they've got it….So far, I'm only limited by my imagination.
I would call Nick a true artist – he knows the safe way to build things, but he's always stretching those limits for that warmer, deeper, wilder tone that can take you where your heart needs to go.
GB 5-29-2010