Videos

John Santamaria in the shop

Playing Whittemore DFr classical guitar

I am fortunate to know two great Southern California based classical guitarists – Xeno Muller and John Santamaria.  They stopped by the shop recently to check out a few Whittemore classical guitars.  Both are exceptional players, and it is an honor to have them in the shop.  Here John is playing one of my Daniel Friederich “replicas” — the Whittemore DF model — which just happened to be strung with his favorite Knobloch strings.  John gets such a great tone —- what a right hand!!  Thanks John!   And thanks to Xeno for the video.

French polish

Look for the vapor trail!

I finish my archtops and electrics with nitrocellulose lacquer, but the traditional finish on classical guitars is French polish — a hand rubbed technique using shellac flakes dissolved in solvent.  Interestingly, shellac flakes are a natural animal product, purified from a resin secreted from the lac beetle that infests certain trees southern Asia.  The hand rubbing results in thousands of infinitesimally thin coats of shellac, and when the proportion of shellac, solvent, and oil is just right, you get a vapor trail following the rubber.  Ahhhh. 

Lovro Peretic

Playing Whittemore DF guitar

Lovro won the 2023 GFA classical guitar composition, and he was in Orange County in Fall of 2023 to play a concert at Chapman University — part of the Orange County Guitar Circle concert series, and one of his GFA first place concert tour shows.  I was fortunate to meet up with him the day before his show, and he was generous enough to try out a few of my recent builds.  Here he is playing a Whittemore “DF” guitar — a replica of the Daniel Friederich No. 802 guitar.  THANKS LOVRO!!

TY Zheng

Playing Whittemore classical number 1

The great TY Zheng won the 2019 GFA classical competition, and was one of the headliners at the  inaugural (and only!) Chapman University Classical Guitar Festival.  He played a large hall concert on day 1, and gave a master class the next day.  This video was taken just after his master class, where I asked him if he had time to check out Whittemore classical Number 1 — which I had just completed a few days before the festival.  The guitar is European spruce top with sycamore back and sides with bracing based on the work of the Parisian builder Dominic Field.  THANKS TY!!

Crown Vic / Stir It Up at the Harp Inn

Costa Mesa’s fine music bar Irish pub

Crown Vic was an all instrumental band playing a mix of jazz/blues/world/originals, and it was not only a really fun band to play in, but It was a great “laboratory” testing ground for my electric and archtop guitars.  We played just loud enough that a normal hollow body archtop guitars would have feedback stress, and for me, designing archtops that could perform in this environment while still having an acoustic character was a big design goal.  Here we are playing the Marley standard “Stir It Up”.   And I am playing my own creation: Whittemore W33.  An awesome guitar for this musical setting.  My amp is a 1967 blackface Fender Vibroluxe reverb the I found in the old days in a newspaper classified add in Wilmar Minnesota….. 

Crown Vic was:

Bob Feigenbaum (sax), Grant Miner (stand up bass), Joe Fischman (drums), and Ned Whittemore (guitar).

To see more Crown Vic videos, check out the WhittemoreGuitars channel on YouTube.

Go to W33 model page

Josh Smith

Playing Whittemore W33 thinline carved top archtop guitar

Yet another video of Josh in his recording studio – back in 2016, this time playing a Whittemore W33 archtop.  Thinline fully hollow carved spruce top with P90s.  A Gibson ES-330 on STEROIDS.  He likes this one!  THANKS JOSH.

Josh Smith

Playing Whittemore Barry Zweig Archtop guitar

Another video from my visit to Josh’s great recording studio – back in 2016.  Here he is playing a Whittemore Barry Zweig signature model archtop.  Josh can really put a guitar thru its paces!  THANKS JOSH.

Josh Smith in his recording studio

Playing Whittemore thin line K156L

Josh invited me up to his fantastic recording studio – back in 2016 — and I brought some Whittemore electrics and Archtops up for him to try. Here he is playing the K165 thin line. What touch and tone this man has in his fingers. THANKS JOSH.

Barry Zweig & Shane Savala

Playing a pair of Whittemore Kalamazoo Archtops at Federal Bar

The great Barry Zweig and Shane Savala playing a brunch gig at Long Beach’s Federal Bar back in 2012 — playing a pair of Whittemore Kalamazoo Archtops.  Shane’s playing is awesome on this tune, and Barry’s accompaniment is superb.  Barry passes away a few years ago and I miss him so much.  What a great man!  

Bruce Forman

Kalamazoo K165C-Deluxe

I strung up this fine K165C-Deluxe at 6PM and drove up to the great  John Pisano’s “Guitar Night” – where the bebop/CowBop KING Bruce Forman is a frequent guest.  It had been strung up literally for one hour before I handed it to Bruce on the bandstand.  THANKS A TON to Bruce for his invaluable feedback and friendship.  All K165 guitars have benefitted from Bruce’s 10,000 fold experience (and love of the L5 sound).  Apologies for the digital “overs” during the drum rolls in the iPhone video.

Ron Eschete at Steamers

Whittemore BlueJay semi-hollow

Full length video of the great Ron Eschete playing Whittemore BlueJay at Steamers in Fullerton in 2015.  The fantastic rhythm section includes Kendall Kay (drums) and Luther Hughes.  Ron played at my wedding, and tells me “when he marries them, it sticks!”   Thanks Ron.

Get out and see some live local music TODAY!

Bruce Forman

Whittemore Kalamazoo in one of Bruce’s exceptional on line lessons

Bruce is an exceptional teacher, both as part of the famous USC jazz guitar / studio guitar program, in group teaching sessions, as a private teacher, and with a variety of on line teaching programs including some great instructional videos on MyMusicMasterClass.   The video here is Bruce teaching on line for RiffTime a few years ago — with Bruce playing a Whittemore Kalamazoo K165 archtop (which he named “Buttermilk”).    ENJOY!

Get out and see some live local music TODAY!