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The Ochoteco is made of European Walnut in the back and sides with a fine Red Cedar top which is braced and voiced in Gabriel's unique way combined with a large (16 inch) lower bout, narrow waist and small upper bout owing more to the flamenco guitars of his native Uruguay than the ubiquitous American sound and shape. This allows much more power, tone and expression without loss of strength and this guitar is the shapely lady you see on the back cover of 'Spindrift'.
The solid Mahogany neck is unusually bolted to the body, not for economy, but to give better access to the higher frets and, as Gabriel says 'It makes more sense to shape the heel block inside the guitar so you don't need an external heel'. Any doubts about whether this arrangement affects the tone will be soothed away when you hear the instrument on pieces such as 'Birlinn Latharna' (track 10 - Spindrift) or 'Broom of the Cowdenknowes' (track 13 - Spindrift). With a 650mm (251/2 inch) scale, the fingerboard is made extra wide for fingerstyle playing (50mm/115/16 inches at the nut), has wide, low frets and an action close to that of an electric. That's perfect for the fast hammer-on, pull-off and triplets that mimic the pipes.
The rich, mellow voice of the Bosque Nortena immediately won my heart when I first heard it in Gabriel's workshop in Brisbane. I keep the guitar in DADGAD most of the time and I've tried many different strings on it over the years but for Spindrift I used D'Addario EXPs (12-53 with 13 and 17 substituted on 1st and 2nd). Recording and on stage I use just a touch of reverb and delay to give ambient space to the sound but never enough to lose the guitar's unique voice - I love it the way it is.
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