Apollonio guitar at a steal

Subject: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: kendall
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 07:32 PM

Nick just told me he has a 12 string on sale at Apollonioguitars.com Price, $1150.00

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 07:46 PM

$1,813.30 Canadian, in case anyone's interested.
I can't find the website, Kendall.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: kendall
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 09:35 PM

Neither can Nick! He is working on it.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 10:23 PM

If I played guitar........oh well.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Julia
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 10:56 PM

Nick's guitars are AWESOME! He makes them so that they really sing... like an orchestra. Ever since Fred got his he has been finding all thse new voices. Sounds great solo but also mixes beautifully with my harp. Someone will be lucky to snap this up!
I think he has one on ebay, too?

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 21 Nov 02 - 11:02 PM

OK folks listen. I'd buy this in a heartbeat (and I already have a fine 12 string...but nuthin' like THIS guy makes) but the bucks ain't there.

These are so resonant, (and I've played at least seven or eight of them now, including Sandy's and Kendall's) you won't believe it...it's a funny kind of process the guy uses....they are light as a feather and feel like they might explode...but they Don't. They just get better sounding with time. If you've ever wanted a 12 string, you simply can't do better at ANY price....including Guild or Taylor or an old Takamine.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 09:29 AM

Back in 1990, I heard a strong rumor that Nick was feeling discouraged and considering going out of business. My wife wanted to learn 12 string, anyway, so it made sense to speak with Nick.

We travelled to his atelier [much classier than a workshop] to discuss details and dimensions. Several months later, we picked up a gorgeous, custom instrument for significantly less than an "equivalent" mass produced instrument. It took her several years to really get into playing it but, as mentioned above, that instrument really sings.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Willie-O
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 11:01 AM

I had a chance to play Kendall's Apoll-whatever at the Getaway last month. I've never owned a 12-string, I admire the sound but it exceeds my no-more-than-8-strings-per-instrument rule.

Well, rules are made to be broken!

If you've ever marvelled at the great resonant shimmering sound of Gordon Bok's 12-string playing, you will recognize the tone these guitars produce.   Certainly Gordon Bok is a very fine player, but the sound these things put out is just very, very remarkable. I have not heard the like in another make.

It's like hearing the Atalantic Ocean in an echo chamber.   

Kendall's guitar is also remarkably lightweight for a 12. Very comfy for a big'un. It's got to be a tough go being a 12-string builder. They're harder to get right, and still they sell for less than a 6 string due to the more limited market.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: kendall
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 11:04 AM

You will never buy one of these cheaper.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 06:47 AM

Here's another opportunity to own an amazing 12-string made by Nick Apollonio. Apollonio 12-string on eBay

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 07:44 AM

Dan beat me to posting- on the Apollo Guitar thread.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: kendall
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 07:47 AM

I wouldn't trade my Apollo 12 string for a farm Downeast with a hog on it.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 07:48 AM

I'm with you, Kendall. I loved playing yours. Thanks again.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 07:53 AM

Hey! That's interesting. Pretty low starting price. I don't usually play 12-strings, but I guess I'll keep an eye on this one for a bit and see what happens.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:49 AM

Given the fact that the Canadian dollar is now at about par with the US dollar, it's become a fortuitous time for Canadians to buy an Appolonio guitar. ;-)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 11:53 AM

Huh. For some reason this thread didn't come up in my search yesterday. Whichever thread it's in, this guitar is worth checking out.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 12:23 PM

If we had a house already I'd sure try for the 12-string.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 12:52 PM

Holy cow, that IS a low starting price! I'll bet it sounds gorgeous just like his others.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 12:53 PM

I am hoping for one of my very own, next year :)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Amos
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 01:11 PM

Nick, put a BUY NOW price on it!


A

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 02:58 PM

Amos - he can't do that now - someone has already bid on it and that cancels out Buy It Now.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 12:24 PM

Still just one bid - I wonder what it will go for. It's easily worth four times - probably more - what it's currently going for.

It is certainly a better instrument than the $22,000 12-string that's also listed right now. Hopefully folks will look at body shape, compensated saddle, adjustable neck, fretboard material, decorative elements (Nick's has a nice rosette) and reputation and realize which one of these instruments is the real treasure.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 11:33 PM

It sold for $2,036 which is a respectable bid. I nearly got it myself, cos I bid $2,011....close, but no guitar! ;-) I wonder who did get it?

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Midchuck
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 06:49 AM

How do you spell a chuckle of evil glee in the roman alphabet?

P.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 09:52 AM

What??? It was you??? Well, if it was, give us a report on the guitar after you get it and have had a chance to play it some. I'd really like to hear about it from the new owner.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: maeve
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:55 AM

Little Hawk- check your PMs.

Peter- Congratulations! I'd love to hear you play it sometime.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 09:57 AM

Congratulations! You will never regret it.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 12:04 PM

Damn, Peter. Well done, mate.


A

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: gnu
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 04:56 PM

Indeed! Congrats Midchuck!

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 05:17 PM

I envy you the world of sound you are about to discover.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 05:51 PM

Ahh weel, ye'll nae outbid me next time for that braw set o' Highland bagpipes on Ebay, Midchuck! ;-)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:15 PM

Little Hawk, I encourage you to get in touch with Nick directly, and start talking to him about making you a guitar. You'll be much more pleased, and much less in debt, than you would be with anything even remotely comparable.

If you pm me I'll give you his number.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 06:54 PM

I've already been in touch with him directly, Dan. Had a good phone conversation and a whole bunch of emails. He's very interesting to talk to, and I find we have a lot in common when it comes to appreciating acoustic instruments. I'm quite interested in the Citterns he's making.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Midchuck
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 08:02 PM

NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY TO ROCKPORT, MAINE.

I got on the road early Saturday morning - there was a fund-raising breakfast at the Congregational Church here on the green, that opened at 7:00, so I went and ate when they opened, then took off. Drove across VT on US 4, up I-91 to St. Johnsbury, then across the narrow top of New Hampshire on US 2, to the north of the Presidentials. I then followed Mr. ApOllonio's directions for crossing Maine on a series of secondary roads to come to Rockport from the northwest. I managed, by fudging on speed limits whenever the road appeared to be minor enough that I didn't think it would be patrolled, to get to his house just before 2:00, having estimated to him that I'd be there between 1:00 and 2:00. (Augusta was the only serious problem. They like roundabouts there, and they like putting the sign that tells which routes leave the roundabout where, just at the place where you see it too late. But I managed to make it through and out on the correct road with only a couple of stops and turnarounds, and one near-miss by a lady in my blind spot. I'm not sure I see the need for Augusta, but a lot of people seem to.)

I was very cordially received by Mr. A., even considering that I came bearing money. He provided a lunch of lobster, a special treat since I like it but hardly ever have it, living inland. He didn't even flinch when I demonstrated my lack of technique at taking a whole lobster apart to eat it, and sprayed pieces of shell and that green stuff inside, on various parts of the table.

He also provided an instrument fully as good as he had represented it, and then some. Basses like a burly slave beating a giant bronze gong in a great stone temple. Trebles like an explosion in a wind chime factory. Midrange to match, 'tho I'm out of similes. More bling than I'd realized it had, but all in excellent taste. I received a thorough familiarization with the special mechanics of this instrument. What I really liked was the strap pin. It's centered in the heel of the neck, rather than around to the treble side as is more common. But you can grab the pin, pull hard, and it pops out, along with a quarter-inch or so of dowel that it's screwed into. At the bottom of the resulting hole, there's a slotted machine screw head. When the action gets bad, and the neck angle appears to have gone awry, you do not try to find a competent luthier who has time to work on it, give it to him for days or weeks, and have him do a neck reset for 200 - 400 dollars. You tighten or loosen the screw.

After being shown around his shop, admiring his cittern playing (when he showed me his CD, that he had entitled "Cittern on the Dock of the Bay," I knew I had discovered a mentality somewhat like my own, if much more gifted), making an appropriate fuss over his cat, and doing the necessary business stuff, I headed out around 4:00, down Route 1 and the Maine Pike, to Scarborough, where Kendall and Jacqui, and Becca, were waiting to admire the new acquisition. Actually, Kendall had already played it, and his claim that it was as good as, or better than, his old Apollo 12 (the best-sounding 12 string I'd ever played until this one) was the deciding factor in my committing to it. But he wanted to play it some more.

We indulged in modest servings of adult beverages, and I got to play Jacqui's new guitar. Another one from Mr. A., but a six string, a dreadnought shape but about 7/8 standard dread size. Adirondack/Mahogany, IIRC. Very plain compared to the big 12, but sound is all you'd expect from a slightly smaller 6-string from this maker. Could compete with the Proulx OM/D or the Huss & Dalton CM, my nominees for "closest to dreadnought sound in a smaller body." and action like butter. The whipped butter that comes in tubs.

Dinner at the local buffet restaurant followed. Back at the house, Kendall insisted on sleeping in the camper and having me use his bed. Eat your hearts out, ladies. Even though he wasn't in it. Jacqui and Becca and I drank wine and told lies for a while longer. Not very long.

In the a. m. I was baconed and egged, and declined the offer to join K. and J. at the Sunday old car rally, as I wanted to get on the road and beat the leaf peepers. I had a quick trip down 95, across on 101, and up 93 and 89, but when I got off onto US 4 east of Woodstock, I found that all the elderly leaf peepers in southern New England were there ahead of me, indulging in the usual Fall competition to see who could drive the most slowly without stalling out his/her engine, and swerve from side to side of the road most wildly without actually going into the ditch on the wrong side. For most of the trip, I would have preferred to have had Kris go with me, but for the end of the trip, I was glad to be alone so I could scream as many loud curses as I needed to, without rebuke.

Home by 11:15 am. Have alternated sleeping and playing the new machine for the balance of the day, with one good walk in the woods to work out kinks. Now I have to start learning to really play 12-string. I know I'll never be Gordon Bok or Leadbelly, but I can't just beat on this thing. It wouldn't be right. Nothing is ever simple.

Peter

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 08:13 PM

Awright! Sounds like you had a great time, Peter. Well, I was bitten by the bug so I figured if I couldn't get that 12-string, I'd buy one of Mr Apollonio's Citterns instead. I just got one on the Ebay auction earlier this evening. Alas, I don't live that close to Maine...so Nick will be mailing it to me next week sometime. Too bad. I love eating fresh lobster. ;-)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 08:31 PM

Peter? I hate you.

Seriously, I'm glad I couldn't afford it because I sure can't play a 12-string. I ain't all that up-to-speed on the 6-string. I expect to see your new Apollonio sometime in the future.

Isn't it great when you feel like you have to improve because you owe it to the instrument?

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 08:36 PM

I was wondering what it would go for ! Glad it went to an appreciative home

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 08:46 PM

Now I have a whole new set of chords to learn... ;-)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Amos
Date: 10 Oct 10 - 10:11 PM

LOL!! If I had written that post it would have been ten days lobng each way!! So I guess you are better off having it...damn it.

Good fortune go with you, Peter!! Expect to hear you sounding like Gordon at the next Getaway...



A

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 09:24 AM

I've been wondering, actually, what picking styles work best on a 12-string. Does anyone know? What I mean is...does anyone HERE know...just to clarify that. ;-)

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 12:06 PM

What works best? Gordon's. What works best that I can do? On Nick's 12s, I try to take advantage of the amazing volume, attack, sustain and bass response. This means a light touch on the strings, and letting some notes just hang in the air longer than I would on a 6 (or anybody else's 12, for that matter). I might hit a note, go to the kitchen, make a sandwich, eat it, have a soda, and then come back for the next note. That's SUSTAIN.

The other thing I try to do is use the octave courses to my advantage, and angle my hand so that I pick up just the high note when I want it, or emphasize the high note more than the low, so that I have much more flexibility within a hand position. That probably holds for any 12 string.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 12:41 PM

Hmmm. Okay, that sounds like a good start. I'll have to get over to The Arts (music store in Newmarket) and try out a Taylor 12 they have there and see if I can get the feel of that. It's pretty good, by the way...I played it a couple of weeks ago and was well impressed.

Then too, I should probably listen to how Gordon Bok does it.

Subject: Hey, Midchuck
From: kendall
Date: 15 Oct 10 - 08:17 PM

When are you going to tell us about your new 12 string guitar?

---

See this post --mod

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Midchuck
Date: 15 Oct 10 - 09:39 PM

I thought I did. I've already given my impression of the sound.

Donno what else is to tell. One would have to hear it. I'm still working to get it under control. The temptation is to play it as though it were a 6-string. That isn't what it wants, exactly. I'm still figuring out what it does want, but I think it has to do with economy - both in the number of notes you try to get per unit of time, and the vigor with which you pick or strum it. Too many notes too fast makes it sound more cluttered than with a 6, too hard an attack makes it jangly - if that's a word.

Sandy tried it, and said he thought the action was too low. I think the action's wonderful. It's only too low if it buzzes, and it hadn't buzzed yet.

Of course, there is the tuning issue. But at least we have better and better electronic tuners. I'm also still working on the capoing problem. Hard to find something that'll mash the little strings down hard enough, with the big strings right next to them. A Shubb works, pretty well, if you tighten it down pretty hard. Mr. A. said that Gordon Bok uses a Shubb, in which he cuts leetle grooves for the big E (D, actually) and A (G, actually) strings to fit into. That might be worth trying.

More as we get better acquainted.

P.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 16 Oct 10 - 01:08 AM

That's what I do with the capo. I often find that mashing it very hard right up next to the fret works well. But I do have the groove as well.

Tuning on the 12 is actually sometimes easier than the 6, once you get used to it. All those doubled up strings make it easy to find a note to tune to without getting out your tuner.

I absolutely agree with you about the action. Nick's guitars work well with a gentle touch so you don't need high action. And you a lot more with a lot less on the 12.

Dan

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: kendall
Date: 16 Oct 10 - 08:42 AM

Now, that's what I had in mind, Peter. I also use a grooved capo but most 12s hate a capo. I much prefer the sound of the uncapoed guitar.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 10 - 09:03 AM

Actually, I'm tickled to have access to the keys of Bb and F, in which I or Kris seem to do quite a few songs, without a capo (since it's tuned a whole tone lower, that's what comes out if I use C or G fingerings). I can still get C, G, and D without capo by using D, A, and E fingerings respectively. I lose A and E unless I use a capo. (Yes, I can do barre chords. No, I'm not going to hold barre chords for all 47 verses of "Sir Patrick Spens" or whatever.) But if it's my lead, and I'd been doing a song in one of those keys, I can usually go up a half tone without crashing. The only risk is that the fiddler may beat on me some.

P.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Oct 10 - 10:19 AM

Yes, it's never wise to antagonize a fiddler! ;-) They're capable of anything.

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: GUEST,nikos
Date: 18 Oct 10 - 08:45 PM

OK you guys, I'm in. I used Shubbs for a long time until I discovered Dunlop Trigger. exclusive now on my citterns (gets the low octave D without cutting a notch in the rubber for the big string a la Bok). Works so far on 12's as well but I don't use the .068 schooner rigging wire that His Majesty does to get his 12's down to Bb without buzzing or wimping out.
And thanx to all for the nice comments, seem a bit overblown but maybe not....I've lost interest in other (factory) guitars as well for some reason.
-N

Subject: RE: Apollonio guitar at a steal
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 09:29 AM

Elvis has entered the building! Da man hisself!

P.