News
2020 news
New Single OUT NOW!
Head over to the Music Marketplace to stream and buy your own copy.
2015 news
Custom guitar build update
Work is still in progress for my custom acoustic guitar being built by my good friend Mark Dobbins, owner of Dobbins Guitars. The guitar is a custom body shape based off of a Martin OM. Back and sides are Macassar Ebony with a bearclaw spruce top and a walnut neck.
This guitar also features a couple firsts for Mark. He has come up with an innovative bracing design which integrates a layer of carbon fiber in between two halves of a brace. After sawing each brace in half, Mark placed a thin strip of carbon fiber in the middle of each brace and epoxied this "spruce sandwhich" back together. The carbon fiber gives the braces an amazing strength to weight ratio, allowing for important savings on weight while providing even greater strength than conventional wood braces. This is also Mark's first model to feature a cutaway. We chose a florentine style cutaway for this guitar.
2013 news
Leo Kottke in town on 3/22
Leo Kottke is coming to the Crest Theatre on Fri March 22nd. I have seen him here before and he was amazing. If you are not familiar with Leo, he has a finger-picking style which is very rhythmic and often fast-paced. On top of this, he does a fair amount of this on a twelve-string guitar. For anyone who has played a twelve-string before, you can really appreciate Leo's skills to be able to play in this style while picking six paired sets of strings. This is like the "Insanity" workout video for one's hands. I will be looking forward to seeing the show on 3/22. If you like Leo you should go too. If you haven't heard him, go check him out now!
https://soundcloud.com/pauliatesta/leo-kottke-vaselinemachine
https://soundcloud.com/danriley/fisherman-leo-kottke
Reno Acoustic Music Festival April 12th and 13th
The Reno 2013 Acoustic Festival will feature live music, a luthier showcase, workshops, and plenty of vendors and quality handmade instruments. My friend Mark Dobbins of Dobbins Guitars will have a booth there and I will also be there working the booth with Mark. We will be showing off some of his 100% handmade ukeleles and I will be playing a few of his guitars as well. There will even be a live performance by Leo Kottke as well as some other great acts. The event takes place in Sparks, NV at John Ascuaga's Nugget. Here's the link for more info:
http://renoacousticfestival.com/
http://www.dobbinsguitars.com/
Wells Fargo Night at the Museum
Wells Fargo's 2nd annual Night at the Museum event will be taking place on Friday 6/21. The event will kick off at 5:30pm with my friend Manuel and I playing for an hour as our band, Parallel Planes. There will be music and entertainment all evening as well as BBQ, ice cream and cheescakes. Please come on down, and if you have kids this would be fun for them too. You can check out the details here.
6/21 - Night at the Museum event
