Scott Tennant Plays Hill Signature

I've known Scott Tennant since 1995. I met him at the GFA festival in Northridge, when he came up to my display table, picked up my guitar, and blew my mind.

Scott can really play. His right hand has a strength, suppleness and confidence like no one else. His left hand moves with perfectly natural speed and accuracy, and his musical ear and taste are exquisite. As a founding member of LA Guitar Quartet, as a virtuoso soloist, and as a teacher Scott's playing has touched not just me, but tens upon tens of thousands - or millions of people around the world. He's smart, and funny, and he has exposed me to all sorts of music that has added to my repertoire and changed my several times over.

So, last year when he contacted me wanting a guitar, I was thrilled. Over the years I have shown him instruments, absorbed his comments, and now with the Signature model it seems I've made some instruments that grabbed his attention. I took him 2 or 3 guitars to try out, he bonded with one, and the next morning he took off with it on tour of Russia, China and Japan, both with the quartet and as a soloist.

For some time now Scott has been real wrapped up with his Daniel Friedrich guitars, and no wonder. Friedrich has been making stellar, world class guitars for decades. They are some of the most prized instruments of any living builder. Now that he has chosen to include a Hill Signature guitar as a working axe I'm proud, and excited to hear him playing on it as much as possible. I absolutely love these guitars, but then I'm kind of biased. When an artist of Scott Tennant's stature chooses a Hill Guitar and plays it so beautifully, I am very, very happy. We must be doing something right.

Sylvan Music Now A Local Santa Cruz Dealer

We at Hill Guitar are delighted to add Sylvan Music in Santa Cruz to our esteemed dealer group. I've known owner Al Markasky for decades, as long as Sylvan has been around. I've watched the store grow from a tiny repair and sheet music operation to one for the strongest retailers and service centers in acoustic guitars anywhere. They've got an remarkable selection of steel string instruments, old and new, and they have a respectable collection of classical guitars. With the addition of Hill Signature instruments and New World Guitar Player series and Estudio series, their selection got better!

The first Hill Signature guitar that went there lasted less than a week. This has been a trend all over, keeping the Signature Models in demand, and in short supply. Production of these guitars is very limited. We delivered a cedar/Indian rosewood Signature Model (double top) to Sylvan Music just yesterday, and if your interested in such a thing you should go try it, because it probably won't be there for long. There are very few of these instruments available for sale at this time, and demand is strong.

Although we are in the same region, Sylvan Music and Hill Guitar have never tried to work together, but I think this is a good collaboration. They are close to the University, close to downtown, and on a main route in and out of Santa Cruz, and they have so many instruments and accessories to look at they are a real destination. Playing Hill guitars in the context of many other instruments gives you the chance to compare, and hopefully get a sense of what is so good about our guitars. Sylvan has a nice sound room dedicated to just classical guitars, so the acoustics and privacy are ideal for trying out guitars.

So I'm very happy to finally hook up with our home-boys at Sylvan Music. You should visit them soon!

Kenny Hill
December 18, 2008

I didn't get into this line of work to be in business. It was more of a mystical choice, a compulsion, based on love of the sounds, shapes, smells and feelings that swirl around these guitars, both playing and building guitars. Yet, somewhere in the course of family life and many children I understood that I would have to accept some kind of role in business to allow me to pay for my guitar habit, so I could keep on doing what I love, and keep my kids somewhere out of musician's poverty. I reluctantly embraced "business" as part of what's needed for guitar making and guitar playing. It hasn't been easy, and it's definitely a work in progress, but I consider myself among the lucky ones to be working at something I love, and surround by talented and insightful people.

Now along comes a meltdown. It's very annoying. It seems that while I and a host of colleagues have been spending our best efforts to do nice things and make the world a little better, other mammoth forces have been extra cynical and greedy - or epically careless - with the big world of economies, and it threatens to unravel much that we've done over the last five or thirty five years. Thankfully, life at Hill Guitar is still chugging along. People still need guitars, maybe now more than ever. Although I am quite aware of the power of world, national and local economics, it's not the only thing I think about, and we are still holding on to our plans and hopes in this special world of guitar. We're still making some truly great guitars, and we're even expanding our lines of student instruments, trying to provide our customers the very best instruments possible for their money and for their music.

As musicians we're a little lucky at this moment, because we're practiced at hard times. We didn't get into this for the money. We got into it for the beauty, for the human contact, for the inspiration, for the personal and spiritual challenges that go along with it every day, regardless of what level of player you are. There is always something valuable and ongoing in the growth and communion that comes with music, and this is always available to us - in good times and in bad.

We musicians are part of the solution, not part of the problem. We already know something about sacrifice. Through music we make the world better, through our passions and attention to detail we improve ourselves and our surroundings. This is why I actually feel a bit optimistic at this time, in spite of grinding catastrophic news. Sometimes it takes disappointment to remember what is really valuable in life. In a recessionary climate I see an opportunity to calm down a little, look around and rethink what's important, what offers lasting contentment and quality of life. This is our opportunity to re-assert real personal values.

So I'm not giving up, not even letting up. This is a very good time for music. Musicians always have to deal with tough economics, it's the norm. We're used to it, grudgingly at home with it, adaptable. So let's keep it going. Here at Hill Guitar we're we try to make make instruments that make our musicians lives a little better. As musicians we all make music to make our daily world a little better. Keep it going. It's more important now than ever.

Kenny Hill

First 2009 New World Guitars Arrive

Our first 2009 New World models have arrived. Standard classical models in the Player and Estudio guitar series. These full-sized guitars have 650mm string length, and are available with Englemann spruce or Western red cedar soundboards. All of our New World instruments have lightweight adjustable 2 way truss rods and come standard with an allen wrench.

The Player series guitars are all solid woods with ebony fingerboard. The Players are really beautiful and sound terrific. These will be available in 628mm scale, cutaway and fingerstyle with cutaway and narrower fingerboard. Later next year expect to also have 640mm scale as well.

The Estudio series guitars feature solid soundboards, laminated Indian rosewood back and sides and rosewood fingerboard. These are available in 628mm scale, cutaway and fingerstyle with cutaway and narrower fingerboard. There are also smaller body sizes coming in the Estudio line: 615mm, 580mm and 480mm, as well as 640mm.

All our New World models are now available with a premium arched hardshell case.

For more detailed images of our new models, please check out the Showroom at our website.

GFA Youth Division Winner, Saki Kato Plays Hill Signature

I was pleased to exhibit in the Guitar Foundation of America festival in San Francisco this past August. A lot of good things happened, but I have to tell you about one thing in particular. Saki Kato came with her parents from Tokyo to compete in the under 14 year-old division. I was delighted to meet her because I was aware that she plays on a Signature Model guitar of mine that she acquired in Japan a few years ago. I had heard of her when I was in Tokyo last year, but we were unable to get together then.

Saki is 11 years old and has been playing since she was about 3. During the last four years she's been studying with the great guitarist Shin Ichi Fukuda, He was one of the featured performers in the GFA this year, and probably because he was going to be there, he encouraged her to come and compete.

Fukuda is a great player, a great personality, and obviously a great teacher, and it was a pleasure to hear him play and get to know him a bit as well.

Saki is small and shy, and speaks almost no English. When she sat down to play, the guitar looked big for her, but when she actually started playing everything transformed. She completely commands the instrument. There's nothing she can't do - effortlessly. I was amazed, and so was anyone within ear-shot.

On Saturday night it was announced that she was in the finals, and I knew I had to be there. So at 9:00 Sunday morning I made it to Herbst Theater to hear the junior finals.

Unbelievable! She played the Grand Solo by Sor and Fuoco by Roland Dyans, and she dominated the music and the room. The shy young girl who was staying up past her bed time the night before, was now a fully poised and confident virtuoso, but not just a virtuoso, an artist. Her playing and interpretation was flawless, and later that Sunday when the results were announced the judges agreed. They awarded her not only first place, but they announced that she also achieved the first-ever perfect competition score!

I was so proud of her, and thrilled to have been there. I was proud of my guitar under her hands as well. I look forward to hearing her magnificent playing many times in the future. At 11 years old I don't know how she can plan for the future, really, but she has a talent that is without peer. I can't wait to see where it goes.


Kenny Hill with Shin Ichi Fukuda.

The Romeros Concert in Carmel October 4

The Romeros Guitar Quartet
Saturday, October 4, 2008 8PM
Sunset Center, Carmel

Kenny will be showing guitars at this event, including the Signature and Signature Stand-up model. Please contact the Carmel Music Society for more information.

Tickets: $62, $52, $20[student] You can call [831] 625-9938

Kenny Hill @ Paris Salon de la Musique

Kenny Hill will be showing several Signature models including his new Standup model in Paris September 12-15 at the Salon de la Musique et du son show.

Evolutiomusic booth B61

The Music and Sound Show: The gathering for every kind of Music!
Second edition, a new dimension.

Reed Expositions France, in collaboration with the CSFI (Chambre Syndicale de la Facture Instrumentale Française) is organising the second edition of the Music and Sound Show which will be held from 12 - 15 September 2008.