Paul Heumiller is one of those affable, level headed people you hope you’re going to be lucky enough get on the other end of the phone when you really need some sound advice from an experienced professional. He listened patiently to my various attempts at describing the sound I was looking for and my hope, after many fruitless visits to numerous ‘high street’ music stores, that Dream Guitars would be able, finally, to fulfill my long term ambition to acquire a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ instrument of superb quality.
In an earlier article, I wrote about once owning a rather wonderful example of a Martin D-28, albeit very briefly. The ‘heavyweight’ sound it produced and its ability to project that sound to the back of a hall was stunning – a never to be forgotten experience. Mixed in with that memory are my distant recollections of Martin Carthy’s sound, Nick Jones’ sound and the magical Martin Simpson, among many others. I asked Paul if it was feasible to capture all of this in one instrument. He said the only thing to do would be to visit the studio and play a wide range of guitars until I found the one that most closely matched the sound I had in my head.
Great advice. He was right of course, so I arranged to visit the studio in early March, and did just what he suggested – for nearly three days! …….
