RBG’s Guitar 17 has a name – Lucia. Her owner, Oscar Adrian, was born in Uruguay and via New York City, has now settled near the Round Barn Guitars shop in Pennsylvania. Oscar’s wife Tricia is a daughter of one of my first cousins so Oscar is now a cousin by marriage. Oscar was a very popular hair stylist in NYC and he met Tricia when she was a professional dancer based in New York.
I first found out that Oscar is a guitar player from Tricia’s aunt. Arrangements were made for Oscar and Tricia to visit and the rest is history. Oscar played several of my guitars and it was clear that he was very impressed with their performance. He was thrilled with everything about the guitar, particularly the feel of the sustained resonance against his body. I was equally impressed with Oscar’s playing ability and somehow not surprised to learn that he was self-taught and had been playing since he was a youngster.
After a delightful impromptu performance by Oscar, we discussed the possibility of building his very own custom instrument. It wasn’t long before we were selecting tonewood and making plans to get started with the build. Because they live close by, both Tricia and Oscar played a significant role in building Lucia as I continued work with another instrument.
We didn’t rush but Lucia was strung “in the blonde” in a little over two months. Tricia said that when Oscar took Lucia home for the first time, he played for hours before putting her down. Lucia is now two years old and making beautiful music. Lucia is definitely not for sale but her pictures appear with the other guitar creations as an example of a special order instrument. Check out the following video to see Oscar and Lucia in action.