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For this meeting, we hosted a special guest. Les Stansell is an Oregon guitar and ukulele builder of the Spanish Classic design. Please note that the LI Uke Strummers Club has no business affiliation with Les Stansell. Les was simply in the area and asked us if it was OK to attend our meeting. Uh… yeah sure! It was an incredible privilege and honor for us to meet and learn from an esteemed luthier. We were also happy to meet his good friend Rory from NYC who has recently decided to become a serious luthier hobbyist.
Les builds his ukuleles based on a "flamenco" guitar design which he calls “Flamenca-léles”. He lives in a region of Oregon which is uniquely suited to Myrtle and Port Orford Cedar trees and Les personally handles the instrument-quality wood from the local area. This wood combined with his build quality and flamenco design make these truly special instruments. We were blessed to personally drool over two of his custom-made ukuleles. One of them had a pistachio fretboard (yes… same as the couch snack nut).
The other had a myrtle wood fret board which was completely devoid of the grain pits that you see on a typical rosewood fret board. There aren’t adequate words to describe the beauty of the myrtle wood body and mesmerizing spalting pattern. Both Flamenca-léles had a high-gloss mirror shellac finish. Everyone was immediately astonished by the light weight and perfect balance. You can feel the resonance and projection as soon as you take one strum. These were undeniably the finest ukuleles that I’ve ever played. You may be wondering how much do these cost? Les told us roughly $2k. That’s completely reasonable considering that these are extraordinary custom-made instruments using unbelievably beautiful woods.
Additionally, Les is uniquely skilled at playing the uke "clawhammer" style. He graciously gave us a demonstration and provide us with a lesson. It takes some practice to reprogram your brain for the strumming rhythm but it’s kinda fun once you get the hang of it. You can find some examples of clawhammer playing style here:
Aaron Keim - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5V4mtZ-0qg
James Hill - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsOhmN2mpHI
Daniel Ward http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKA8S-OKfL8
Les also mentioned a few Flamenco Guitar performers who inspire him:
Tomatito- Flamenco Guitar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znOV5jWcfwo
Pedro Cortes - Flamenco Guitar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sGcUR_ZBzw
Thanks to Jen for taking notes and finding these links.
For those who could not attend this meeting, luckily Les has a “Flamenca-léles” introductory video discussing some of the topics that he talked about with us:
Les also has a video documentary movie showing his workmanship:
You can find Les online and watch some of his videos at www.stansellguitars.com and www.youtube.com/user/stansellguitars.
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