Here is an the story from this morning:

I had the opportunity to stop by the del Vecchio store in Santa Ifigenia this morning. I will sum it up in one word, no two words. Utterly disappointing.

Here are the details.

Let me say this first. I asked if anyone in the store knew who Chet Atkins was. The pimple faced 17 year old salesman looked at me with a blank stare. The plump pumpkin at the counter never lifted her head from cleaning God only knows what from under her finger nails. And the other sale guy looked at me with the smeark from Dumb and Dumber. I started to explain then said forget about it.

The del Vecchio factory no longer exists. The store with the name, has only that, the name. They sub contract to an “secret” luthier who maintains his shop in Carapicuiba, which to the by passer would appear as the largest shanty town in the area. So I quickly quelled the idea of stopping by in Carapicuiba trying to find the shop on my way to work.

The shop contained about 30 spanish style guitars, ukes, and mandolins. There was one Dinamico (Dobro style) guitar which was so beaten up it looked like someone dragged it behind a horse and buggy for a few miles. It was used and had a fender style single neck pickup installed. It looked like someone did this with a dremel tool. The lacquer on this guitar was boat deck thick and the guitar produced a dull dead sound when strummed.

When questioned about the possibility of visiting the luthier the less than attractive pumpkin working the counter informed that it was not open to the public and declined to provide any further details about the location, name or contact details. I even told them that I was going to do a write up on them and it could possibly produce more business for them. They were unconcerned and as I looked around I could not help but ask why, as the whole time I was there not a single customer walked through the door, and the street outside was bustling with about 1000 people out shopping in the electronic/music district.

Sad but true. A prime example of what makes a third world country the way it is. Just a poor attitude with no desire to achieve.

There was one interesting instrument. A dobro Uke. For those who want to cut about the rest in your Hawaiian band!

The flyer for the store lists these instruments:

Acoustic Guitar
Viola (like a guitar but played by Brazilian Hill Billies, called Caipiras, sometime the Viola is refered to as Viola Caipira, as a side not the famous Brazilian drink Caipirinha mean little hillbilly girl, go figure)
Electric Guitar
Uke
Banjo
Banjo-mandolin (Bandolim)
Guitarra Havaiana (Who knows what this is, I am guessing the lastest fad to hit the streets here. The 6 string lap steel tuned to E Maj., and you thought things were backwards where you are)

As a side note there is a luthier producing nice looking lap steels at another store called Veloze or something along that lines.

The beat up Dinamico was 1650.00 reais. Thats about 800.00 dollars these days.

If anyone wants anymore details feel free to ask. I took some pics and the sweet plumpkin working the desk hid while taking them so there should be no fear of retna damage when viewing.

The general description of this instrument was always alluded to as a fretted dobro. This was always a mistatement in that when you look at the Dinamico guitar you saw all these sound holes on the upper bout and the round assembly in the center. The instrument is actually a resonator guitar with the bridge biscuit sitting on top of the spun resonator cone. They are not a very loud and brash sound as a dobro, but the tone on record thru a couple of grand of Neuman microphone in front of it and a nice plate reverb and Atkins and Martin and other session players playing it produced a nice cross between a dobro and a classical guitar. Atkins used it for countless instrumental recordings and Delvecchio guitar fills can be heard behind many Nashville releases in the 60s and 70s. A classic tone and a dissapointment that they the company has faded. The guitars never made any kind of inroads import wise as a result of the wide swing of construction quality ranging from just plain awful to just barely playable. On the vintage market, they bring a nice price mostly to the Atkins followers.

The Del Vecchio "store" has a website:
http://www.delvecchio.com.br/

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 24 August 2006 at 10:55 AM.]

I was surprised to find that Argentina is having a real country-music craze there, in fact all kinds of American and British style guitar-driven stuff is really popular there. I've even had several job offers from there for PSG but it's just too far... Here in Mexico, there is "supposedly" all kinds of music from Blues, Jazz, rock, metal, etc. but no country music and mostly what I've found is 99% Mariachi, Mexican Pop/rock and other traditional stuff, and some kid bands doing pop/rock/metal. Nobody knows what a PSG is. What's the overall music scene like in Brazil?

Sorry, don't mean to hijack... to get back on topic, what are the local bands like, do they play Del Vecchios?

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 24 August 2006 at 11:19 AM.]

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http://www.clictab.com/RoyT/Roy_Thomson_Steel_Courses.htm

[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 24 August 2006 at 11:52 AM.]

Nato Lima was contacted by Chet in reference to the DelV guitar. Lima sold him his for $350. Atkins said that he would have paid him anything for it!

Roy. Atkins did have several Delv instruments. He did have extensive work done on them including the installation of a truss rod and correcting the fret placements to make them play in tune. One of these he gave to Earl Klugh.

The music scene in Brazil. Principally the City of Sao Paulo and the state of Sao Paulo is very very impressive.

There is a honky tonk call Villa Country withing a mile of my home and it hosts great acts almost every night. They have a steel player in the band. He is the 6 stringer, but does a decent job on the steel.

There are numerous great non pedal players. One of them is a guy called Theo Werneck (pronounced Ver-neckey). When I first heard him play I thought wow! This guy sounds like speedy west. There are some really great country bands kicking around, they play a more 80's to 90's style country, like Little Texas, while not my choice of listening pleasure they sure are doing it right.

As far as Blue goes there is a big blues scene and some really great acts. The blues is more along the lines of Rolling Stones Rock Blues, since no one seems to be able to fully understand a shuffle, forget a Ray Price Shuffle, but once again if you can get over the inability to have a shuffle in your blues then its decent.

There are a handful of real hardcore blues guys that go all out to get it right down to the T. Theo Werneck has a trio set up and these guys doing it right with some real down home style blues and folk music.

Theres a clip of them up on YouTube.

There is also a small bluegrass scene which is not too active but still there.

I wont even comment on Jazz...

Its all around good. I would say though that Country, is probibly the biggest growing area here in Brazil.

Check this out if you can read spanish this should be no problem:
http://www.villacountry.com.br/novosite/

For anyone who cannot read Portuguese there is a real nice pictures section on the villa country site with the "Fans"

Click on "Fotos" below "Canais" Then click on any of the "Clique Aqui"

You will see what you are missing, and when I tell you guys that these girls all run up to the steel player when the gig is over that is the truth!

Matthew, thanks to you for the scoop on the music situation there. Sounds like a really happening place for music. Crazy. Every kind of music in the U.S., every kind of music in Brazil and Argentina... and somehow it skipped by Mexico City. It's probably here if you know exactly where to look for it, but certainly not like you describe or I hear about Argentina. Santo and Johnny were very big here with Sleepwalk and And I Love Her, and we've even found some jazzy lapsteel in some old Mexican recordings but nowdays no one seems to know what a steel is and country music is nonexistent.

Thanks for the link to the website too, I do read/speak Spanish well enough, ... some Portuguese words are the same or similar to Spanish, so I can muddle through it.... my wife is better with Portuguese than I am so she can help me, ha.

The girls all run up to the steel player? Hmm... well I did get my share of that in the old days so I guess I can't complain...

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 24 August 2006 at 02:20 PM.]

I am still trying to convince my mother-in-law that my Simmon's Lefty is not an Organ! She saw the pedals and thought it was one of those organs from back in the day. I exclaimed, I never new that Hawaiian music was played on the organ!

To funny. Its one of those times where if you had a video camera and recorded it, every time you came home from a bad day you watch it and laugh!

If you click on Modelos, then Outros, you will see it.

Not sure if it's the DV (Bet Bill H knows) but if it is, you can hear it played to perfection (whatever guitar it is, it's beautiful) by Chet Atkins HERE, song number 4. You can see the guitar in the album cover photo, laying in front of the fireplace.

Is this the DV on the recording, Bill? I suspect the DV was used on other cuts on this album as well.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 August 2006 at 11:02 AM.]

Atkins used the short scale version.

Same DV on Josephine also.

[This message was edited by Bill Hatcher on 28 August 2006 at 11:51 AM.]

Thought it was the same git on Josephine too, thanks for confirming that.

That tone has always just made my skin crawl. Probably due more to Atkins than anything else.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 August 2006 at 02:29 PM.]

And of course, Chet with Earl Klugh:

I wonder if getting the strings up to the necessary tension on a squareneck, Del Vecchio-style lap guitar would take away most of the charm of the DV tone, much of which comes from their loose, easily bendable strings?

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 28 August 2006 at 04:45 PM.]

I fell in love with that sound in the '60's from hearing it on my old Chet Atkins records, I think I said 70's in a previous post...that's wrong... guess it's not likely I'll ever find one, and even then, I didn't know til this thread how badly they were constructed, that's a real shame because they sure have a tone. Maybe I'll run into one around here in Mexico... maybe not...

Yes, I thought the mic on the Atkins/Klugh video was responsible for CA's tone not being what it is on his albums, mics too far away, oh well.

Do you know by any chance, if Chet used the DV on his album "It's a Guitar World"? The cut "What Now My Love" sounds very DV-ish to me.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 August 2006 at 09:01 PM.]

Please send me an e-mail too!

I have a question to ask you.

Atkins was always trying to get more low end out of the DV guitar. He tried all sorts of strings on the bass side. I don't think he ever really got as much as he wanted. The DV guitar was the perfect instrument for him. He was making all those instrumental recordings and playing beautiful melodies and tasteful things. You can understand why he got so excited after hearing the guitar played by Lima in Los Indios. Atkins knew that it would have the sustain and singing legato sound that would give him what the nylon string could not. He was always looking for more sustain. Sustain gets you closer to phrasing more like a singer. Holding out notes without them dying out real fast like the classic guitar on which Atkins also played some fantastic things.

Interestingly enough, Lima claims to really not have been so enamoured with the DV guitar even though his use of it is so wonderful. He claims that he only used it for a few records. Oddly enough Atkins referred to the "Maria Elana" cut by Los Indios as his introduction to the DV guitar, but that was actually done on classical guitar by Lima. Lima used the DV short scale guitar for a reason. In order to expand the tonal range of the duo, Lima tuned the guitar up a whole step. The short scale model DV he used allowed this and still gave him some flex in the string to do his signature vibrato. Atkins is really the one who is known for the DV sound and guitar. Lima never played it again after the late 60s. I saw Los Indios about 1970. Lima had began building his own instruments with scolloped thick ebony boards and a separate sound board under the top and other cool features that worked with his style. Lima was a bad cat on the guitar. He used steel string on the top-something that a standard classical guitar could not take. Atkins freely admitted to being captivated by his vibrato and phrasing and "borrowed" it as he put it. Same as he did with Les Paul, Django, George Barnes and Johnny Smith.

If you are a real student of Atkins then you are way past the signature boom-chick thumb stuff he was noted for. He was one of the greatest guitarist who ever lived covering so many different styles with a sound and a technique that is mind boggling.

[This message was edited by Bill Hatcher on 28 August 2006 at 09:28 PM.]