New World Guitar Company to be among luthiers from around the world in Healdsburg

Healdsburg Guitar Festival is this weekend!

Join us this weekend of August 9th through 11th at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa, California.
 
Meet the Hill Guitar luthiers and admire, order or purchase a custom made guitar.
 
Take a Players Workshop to improve your playing and composing skills.
 
Enjoy great guitarists playing Demonstration Concerts for the builders who make their music possible. Don't miss our own Kenny Hill in this line-up! He will be performing on Friday from 1:50 to 2:10

In 1995, the Healdsburg Guitar Festival provided a venue for guitar enthusiasts to tryout guitars in the presence of the builder, and also hosted workshops taught by professional performers, who, in turn, demonstrated the musical qualities of the show's custom guitars in a concert setting. The sense of festive community that was established by this interconnected circle continues to this day, and the party we call The Healdsburg Guitar Festival has served a major role in validating the art of modern lutherie ever since.
The festival has helped promote high standards for quality guitars as well as create a stable market for them. “If there is a heaven, it looks just like the Healdsburg Guitar Festival,” wrote guitar buyer Henry Lowenstein in the 2005 edition of Blue Book of Acoustic Guitars. And he continued, “The nation's best luthiers get together to talk, play, and show the best of what they have to offer to the public. Every year they have the grand masters as well as fresh faces at the show. This is not only a great chance to meet the luthiers themselves and learn some really serious academic guitar-building theory, but also to make use of the numerous "quiet rooms," which allow you to actually play and compare these extraordinary instruments.”
Click here for festival information.

We hope to see you there!

New World Guitar to be Awarded at 30th Anniversary!

 We recieved a very nice letter from Clare Callahan, Professor Classical Guitar, from the College Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati thanking us profusely for our gift of a New World Estudio Guitar to their 30th Anniversary of the Classical Guitar Workshop.

Clare says the guitar arrived safely earlier in the week, and they're all so enamored with the instrument.

Initially Jon Marshall got in touch with us about getting ideas for awarding a guitar at the workshops Saturday concert – "and you just solved the whole problem by sending us one!" says Clare.

        She stated "We don't have a competition, so that wouldn't be the mechanism, we have guitarists age 10 through retirement…who convene for a week in July and attend classes in Technique, Ensemble, Masterclasses, and Special Topics. Every night we show another facet of the guitar in recitals – with other guitars, with other instruments, as a solo instrument, playing in the Saturday Guitar Orchestra and then a concert devoted to only participants doing solos, duos, trios, quartets, etc. on Sunday afternoon.   

        It's a slow process, getting classical guitar into the American musical bloodstream, because this is a Pop country.  But we deserve a place at the table… the instrument is beautiful and the repertoire terrific!  Most guitarists don't even know the extent and breadth of their own repertoire!   We celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Classical Guitar Department here in April and ten days  from now we'll celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Classical Guitar Workshop.  Your guitar will be the cherry on top!  

        Over the years, we've had several Kenny Hill guitars in the department.  Jordan Dodson, one of the first two students to be admitted to the new Curtis Institute of Music Guitar program two years ago plays one.  Andy Wygant, who is leaving in September for Brussels to study with Antigoni plays one.  Patrick Smith who is headed out to study with David Tanenbaum at San Francisco Conservatory plays one.  Others have come through the department…. And Rod Stucky in the Prep Dept has students on your instruments.  We are always pleased with Kenny Hill guitars and are delighted to have this one to award on Saturday, July 13th!  We'll put the names of all the participants in a hat and draw a name….many, many thanks for your continued high standard of Instrument making and for this generous gift!"

Thank you Clare, it's our pleasure to support such programs. We look forward to hearing who the fortunate recipient is.

JLS

        

NAMM 2013 Kenny's Perspective

Rich Sayage Savage Classical Guitar

We've returned from NAMM 2013 safe and more or less sane, a week of packing and carrying guitars, travel, selling, socializing with customers, vendors, friends, partners and family. Overall the mood of the show was intense, upbeat, with most people well involved in their businesses and lives, with not a whole lot of the lament and woe that we've heard in the previous couple of years. Our own guitars get great reviews and are moving well, and our company is enjoying a good reputation and fine friendships around the world. It's a real privilege in this business to know and connect with many different characters from around the entire globe, a vivid example of how beautifully woven modern international relations and commerce truly are. The world could learn a lot about international relations from hanging around at NAMM, and in fact, we do. 

Simon & Quillan Hill

Colt Valenti

For me the most important development within this years NAMM was the efforts of my sons Simon and Quillan. This year I threw much of the responsibility for the mounting the show into their laps. They had to pack the instruments and display booth, drive it down, unload and set it up, and at the end undo the process. What they also did beautifully was occupy the booth assist with sales and hosting for all four days of the show. They met people, old customers and new, vendors old and new, and attracted some very fine young musicians, spontaneously playing beautiful music in our booth. These kids are youth magnets, reaching new people I would never meet no matter how many shows I attend. Simon and Quillan are smart, energetic, funny, personable, good looking and young! They seemed to slip into the role of the face and the work of the company quite naturally, and I am very, very proud of them. I hope they enjoyed being there as much as everyone else enjoyed them. I am also very grateful for the presence and efforts of Jessica Stark, who keeps everything going smoothly, makes friends easily, and reminds us to mind our manners. She's great. 
We're all back at work now, making guitars, making music, and getting them all out to the world. Thank you to everyone for your support and interest. I am grateful to be in such a rewarding field, surrounded by so many good people and projects. It feels like we are just getting started. 

Kenny Hill Feb 1, 2013

Dusty Strings Music Shop joins New Worlds Dealer Family!

We are pleased to introduce Dusty Strings, the newest dealer to our family of dealers!

Since 1982, Dusty Strings Music Shop has been a haven for music lovers from the curious beginner to the seasoned professional.

Based in Seattle, Dusty Strings offers guitars (electric and acoustic) and other fine instruments in a store that encourages you to pick them up and play. A friendly and experienced staff will help you sort out the options between models, woods, features, and all the accessories to go with it. experience the instruments in Seattle, or browse our inventory online.

We delivered 2 New World Estudio Models and 2 New World Player Models to the Music Store this week. If you get into the store, be sure to pick one up and give it a try. You will find they play and sound great, and will give you years of pleasure!

Dusty Strings Classical Guitars

New World Guitars Website

Hill Guitar Co. New World Player Series Fingerstyle-C Reviewed

Five Hybrid Nylon-Strings Reviewed
Acoustic Guitar reviews five acoustic-electric classical guitars with narrow necks from Alhambra, Córdoba, Hill, Martin, and Taylor.

Acoustic Guitar reviews five acoustic-electric classical guitars.

Featured here, the New World Player Series Fingerstyle-C

Headquartered in Ben Lomond, California, the Hill Guitar Co. operates under the guidance of luthier Kenny Hill, who has been building classical guitars since 1972. The company’s high-end classical guitars are highly regarded by serious classical players, but Hill also consults with Córdoba Guitars and has developed his own line of more affordable instruments that are built in China and sold under the New World Guitars name.

Our review guitar is a Fingerstyle-C model from the New World Players series. It has a 1⁷⁄₈-inch nut width and cutaway but has the overall look and rich, warm tone of a traditional classical guitar and is built with conventional classical construction techniques like fan bracing and a Spanish-foot neck joint. The high gloss finish, along with the dark cedar top, rich Indian rosewood back and sides, and understated look of the purfling and three-ringed rosette pattern creates an air of elegance.

Our Fingerstyle-C came equipped with an optional L.R. Baggs Anthem SL Classical electronics package, which includes an undersaddle pickup, microphone, and onboard preamp with a crossover circuit (click here for our review of the Anthem system). In contrast to other guitars in this article, the Anthem does not have controls in the side of the guitar (its volume control installs inside the soundhole).
Both acoustically and amplified, the Hill Fingerstyle-C delivers the full-bodied tone one expects from a classical guitar, with a warm resonant midrange. The guitar is quite responsive and produces plenty of volume when played hard. I appreciated the combination of the very playable neck and warm traditional tone. I was happy with the sound of traditional classical pieces as well as jazz and Latin tunes, and the guitar’s plugged-in sound was warm, full, and surprisingly feedback resistant. Fiore commented on the Fingerstyle- C’s dark tone and spent a lot of time exploring single-note melodies in the bass, as well as the wide range of tones created by varying his pickinghand position.

NOTEWORTHY FEATURES
Anthem SL Classical pickup.
Traditional classical tone.

SPECS: Solid cedar top. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides. 12-fret mahogany neck with Spanish-foot neck joint. Venetian cutaway. Ebony fingerboard. Rosewood bridge. Bone nut and saddle. 650-mm (25.59-inch) scale. 1⁷⁄₈-inch nut width. 2¹⁄₄-inch string spacing at the saddle. L.R. Baggs Anthem SL Classical electronics. D’Addario Pro Arte strings. Made in China. Left-handed version available without a cutaway.
PRICE: $1,995 ($1,795 without electronics).
MAKER: Hill Guitar Co.: (800) 262-8858; neworldguitar.com.

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Video Review

Free Shipping on any New World Guitar this weekend only!

Between now and Monday 10/29 we are offering Free Shipping on  any New World Guitar from our catalog.

Call Paul at 800.262.8858 for current showroom inventory.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine Reviews our Player model

Acoustic Guitar Editor Teja Gerkin reviews our flagship New World PLAYER model.

Read the full review here