Per-Olov Kindgren My Seven String Guitar
Per-Olov Kindgren plays a Rogerson guitar
My 7 string guitar built by John & Judy Rogerson Three years ago, when I uploaded J. S. Bach’s “Air on a G-string” on YouTube, I had no idea what that would bring me. One of the comments on the music read: - Hi Per-Olov, I would love to hear you play this piece on a 7 string baritone classical guitar. We would love to give you one of our guitars which we make as a hobby just to hear you play it on YouTube. It was signed: John and Judy Rogerson. I replied: - Dear John and Judy. I would love to try this on such a guitar but I don’t understand how... and I don’t think I understood what you mean by “give you one”. - What we mean is that we will hand make one of our classical 7 string baritone guitars and let you have it for free just to hear you share your music with it on YouTube. Choose between Zebrano, Indian rosewood, Granadillo or African bloodwood back and sides. Englemann solid spruce top Bouchet, fan or Houser braces and Mahogany neck with ebony bridge and fingerboard. It takes us about eight months to custom make these so please get in touch and we can send some pictures.
I sent them a message asking what all this was about. They explained that they only make guitars for fun and only for friends and family. Since they liked my playing so much, they decided to make one for me on the condition that I played one piece on YouTube on it. During the next year, I was sent many pictures of the building process. The guitar took more than a year to be built. John and Judy are busy with many activities. John is a world leading dog trainer/psychologist and Judy is a very gifted artist. Their hobby as pilots is also very time-consuming. They build many of their airplanes themselves.
In December 2008, they flew from England to Copenhagen to deliver the guitar. I picked them up at the airport and drove them home. I had to leave for classes but told them to feel at home and rest until I returned from work. When I returned home, later that evening, they had made a four course dinner in my kitchen. John is a brilliant chef. During dinner, John explained the reason for the marvelous gift. –”We saw on YouTube how your music gave joy and harmony to so many people. Your kind replies to the comments gave us an image of a humble person with the gift of expressing feelings and passion in his playing. We wanted to show our gratitude by giving you this 7 string guitar. We do this because we like it. You don’t have to tell anyone who built it for you. We are not interested in selling guitars to others and don’t need you as an advertiser.”
I would like to thank John and Judy for their generous gift. It is more than what a musician can dream and expect; a beautiful instrument built for you, because of your performance. A better acknowledgement is hard to get. I will treasure this in my heart all my life and play the guitar with pride and joy. Thank you! Per-Olov Kindgren