![]() ![]() But the piece’s soaring lines and deftly implied counterpoint sound awesome in any register. This alters its character, big-time - the original sonorous baritone is replaced by high-pitched twinkling. Playing it as fingered on the Avante Gryphon puts the piece in C, an octave and a fourth above the original. The violin version transposes the suite to D to make use of the corresponding strings on that instrument. The cello original makes extensive use of open strings. (It’s like a musical equivalent to Project Gutenberg, with its vast trove of public domain books.) Here’s the version I snagged. I worked from a violin transcription downloaded from IMSLP, an amazing free resource for public domain scores. This piece is the opening movement from the G major cello suite - the best-known segment of Bach’s six suites for the instrument. His industrious rhythms and clockwork counterpoint can dupe you into believing there’s some rational order to the universe. Listening to and playing Bach can be tonic during depressing times. ![]() Instead, let’s yak about Johann Sebastian! I won’t recap my review here- check it out if you’re curious. But the thing is so fun - and sounds so darn pretty - that I can’t stop playing it solo. My original motivation was a high-tuned soprano instrument for multi-guitar arrangements, or for magic-fairy-dust studio overdubs. And unlike the couple of janky plywood mandolins I own, it plays gloriously in tune. It’s made (very nicely!) by Korean CNC robots and sells for $1,400, as opposed to $4K+ for Veillette’s hand-built models.įor years I’ve been looking for the right upscale mandolin, but now I’m happy I found this instead. In fact, the Avante Gryphon sounds a lot like a mandolin, but with a wider range and guitar-like tuning. But while 12-string guitars feature octave-tuned string pairs, here all six courses are unisons, as on a mandolin. The Avante Gryphon is a relatively low-cost version of Woodstock luthier Joe Veillette’s Gryphon, an 18.5″-scale 12-string designed to be tuned a minor seventh (an octave minus two frets) above standard. ![]() This was my first opportunity to record it in my studio. I recently reviewed the gorgeous little Veillette Avante Gryphon for Premier Guitar and liked it so much that I bought one. ![]()
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