DFC International
 In the nearly six years since my partner Saul Rosenthal and I entered the music business, I’ve continued to be impressed by the global nature of the business. Buying, selling, innovation: the international activity becomes more crucial every day. The Denver Folklore Center has for many years sold acoustic instruments that are manufactured in the U.S., as well as in a number of foreign centers. Popular makers such as C.F. Martin, Taylor, Eastman and Blueridge all produce quality instruments in Mexico and China, and we represent these with confidence in their quality, workmanship and value. We recently came upon opportunities to give our customers access to instruments from two new international sources. Kremona produces guitars and ukuleles in Bulgaria, using classic tonewood selections including cedar, rosewood and mahogany. Godin guitars is a respected Canadian company whose product lines include Norman and Simon & Patrick guitars. These lines provide players with a broad variety of body formats and tonewood combinations, some quite different from those made by our US-based makers.
We don’t sell solid bodies at the DFC, but the benefits of hand-selecting fine tonewoods apply equally to acoustic instruments. And I was fortunate enough to see Yaniv’s very first acoustic guitar in its formative state. We’re hoping that his acoustic project leads to some fine instruments that we might one day offer as our newest international selection! In the meantime, friends and customers interested in a one-of-a-kind solid body guitar can contact Yaniv HERE. (Photo: Yaniv Loria of Bunting Guitars hand-checks the resonant frequencies of an ebony fretboard) |
Recently I had the opportunity to visit and tour the production facilities of Bunting Guitars, a small maker of custom-built solid-body electric guitars. Owner and chief builder Yaniv Loria welcomed me to his workshop at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, Israel, and treated me to a tour of the plant as well as an intensive tutorial in judging the tonal characteristics of raw wood. Yaniv demonstrated how he evaluates blocks and thin slats of spruce, rosewood, ebony and other tonewoods for intrinsic tone, resonance and sustain as he produces about five guitars per month, each one individually designed based on an extensive interview with the purchaser.