Casa Del Vecchio Ltda. is a traditional guitarmaking company headquartered in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Since its foundation by Angelo Del Vecchio in 1902, it has produced a wide range of acoustic

stringed instruments String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

. In the 1930s, Del Vecchio began producing

resonator guitar A resonator guitar or resophonic guitar is an acoustic guitar that produces sound by conducting string vibrations through the bridge to one or more spun metal cones (resonators), instead of to the guitar's sounding board (top). Resonator guit ...

s, resulting in their most famous model: the ''Dinâmico,'' (their trade term for resophonic instruments). Current range of products manufactured by Del Vecchio includes classical and

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

guitars, banjos, mandolins, cavaquinho, and

viola caipira The ''viola caipira'', often simply ''viola'', ( Portuguese for ''country guitar'') is a Brazilian ten-string guitar with five courses of strings arranged in pairs. It was introduced in the state of São Paulo, where it is widely played as the ...

Players

One of the most famous players of the Del Vecchio Dinâmico resonator guitar was country musician

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as "Mr. Guitar" and "The Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music ...

. Atkins was initially introduced to the instrument by the music of Nato Lima of Los Indios Tabajaras. On his 1965 RCA Victor album '' My Favorite Guitars'', Chet Atkins refers to his Dinamico as his "Los Indios Tabajaras" guitar and says that "the lead guitarist...sent his o Atkinsand got himself another like it in his native land, where they are readily available." Tracks on the album, where Atkins uses the Dynamico, are ''Josephine'' and '' Moon of Manakoora''. Chet Atkins is credited with playing a Del Vecchio lead guitar on the tune "Turn Around" on Nanci Griffith's '' Other Voices, Other Rooms''.

Earl Klugh Earl Klugh ( ; born September 16, 1953) is an American acoustic guitarist and composer. He has won one Grammy award and thirteen nominations. Klugh was awarded the “1977” Best Recording Award For Performance and Sound” for his album “Fin ...

, a protégé of Chet Atkins, received a Dinâmico from Atkins. Though he enjoyed the sound, he was unimpressed with the quality, eventually asking luthier Paul McGill to build him a refined version. *

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including parti ...

also played a Dinâmico, which happened to be sitting in the studio. He played it for its unique sound on the track ''The Grid'' on his 2005 '' Sixty Six Steps''.

Offshoots

* Paul McGill builds resonator guitars inspired by the Dinâmico design''Acoustic Guitar''
, issue 58 (Oct 1997) *The Japanese guitar company Shaftesbury produced a copy of the Dinâmico in the 1970s.

References

External links

* {{Mandolin family instruments Guitar manufacturing companies Resophonic instruments Manufacturing companies established in 1902 1902 establishments in Brazil Manufacturing companies based in São Paulo Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Brazil Brazilian brands Mandolin makers