Here’s the story behind my 1988 flamenco/classic hybrid guitar, built by a fellow named Vlado Proskjurnjak, a prominent luthier of Russian descent, located in the small village of Varazdin, Croatia. I commissioned the instrument when I went there for three months back in ’88. I named the guitar Vlado, and it’s now 28 years old! Time flies.
I got to choose the soundhole rosette and all the woods: cedar top, nothing exotic there, but the back, sides, bridge and friction tuning pegs are particularly unique; they’re made of partially petrified oak, which came from a huge log Vlado found totally submerged in the depths of the Drava River. He somehow retrieved it, and stashed the behemoth out of the weather for several years to dry before slicing it up into boards, then dried the planks further before building instruments with them.
He estimated the old oak tree to be over 3000 years old. Black as coal and hard as a rock, literally. Played that guitar a lot back in the 90s in California (used it extensively on my 1992 album, Midnight In Zagreb), but it’s grown somewhat fragile over time. Vlado hasn’t seen the stage since the turn of the millennia. Still the best-sounding guitar I have.
