Collector Series Guitars
Of the many guitars to come out of my shop, only a handful qualify for Collector Series status. These guitars represent the culmination of my craft to date, and are the ones I'm personally most proud of. Though all my guitars are essentially custom guitars, these Collector Series guitars stand out in terms of a unified design aesthetic combined with special features and detailing not found on Bashkin Guitars' standard models.Flute Player
The following description was provided by the guitar’s owner.
Michael Bashkin and I have a love for Japanese woodcuts. There is a minimalism to their lines and colors and yet the works are not simple in either composition or theme.
The woodcut Fujiwara no Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was the inspiration for the headstock of my Bashkin guitar. The woodcut is a personal favorite and a copy graces a favored wall in my home. It depicts a Japanese folk story:
Fujiwara no Yasumasa (958-1036) was a celebrated poet and flautist in the Heian court. Legend has it that one moonlit night, as Yasumasa was strolling along the roadway on the lonely moor of Ichiharano, the bandit Hakamadare Yasusuke lay in wait, determined to kill him. As Yasumasa drew closer, the sound of his flute enchanted the highwayman, who was unable so much as to draw his sword. Entirely charmed by the power of music, he followed Yasumasa to his home, where the flautist took notice of the docile brigand and presented him with a suit of clothing. The story was first performed by Onoe Kikugoro III and Ichikawa Danjuro VII at the Ichimura Theatre in Edo in 1822. It was performed again in Edo at the Morita Theater in 1862, when Yoshitoshi was designing many woodblock prints of the kabuki stage. (Stevenson, John. Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon)
I met Michael at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in 2007. Amongst so many masterful luthiers, Michael’s guitars stood out for me, both for their tone and beauty. He had one of his Great Wave Collector Series guitars which, naturally, got us talking about Japanese woodcuts in general and Fujiwara no Yasumasa Plays the Flute in particular. I sent Michael a photo of the woodblock and he took elements of it create the beautiful guitar you see here. The inlay was done by Jimmi Wingert.