So...this isn't him playing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyC9V8dHiyU

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I think its Gene Simmons!

This stuff is not news. What famous work have you heard him do, most never even new the name until HSN started sell the junk.
The guy made a lot of money selling these things because people don't no any better.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

A riot cat

To be honest the first time I heard of him was in that GEICO insurance commercial.

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

I don't see what was so bad about him selling the guitars because he did include 6 DVD lessons with it all for 200 bucks. I bought into it a couple years back. Yes the guitar could've been better and he could have made the lessons easier to follow but what's the difference in that and some other dude selling lessons that can't play as well but charging more for just the lessons. It happens everywhere every day i'm sure.

Esteban is not real!!!!???

Sorry to go off topic for a moment, but...

nikininja wrote:


From what I read in the guitar magazines, soon there'll be nothing to cut anyway. I'm glad I bought my Martin 20 years ago...

As for the thread... I never gave Esteban a second thought. Never heard of him until I saw him on TV. I don't know who'd buy one of those guitars. When my daughter needed a guitar for school, I bought her an inexpensive Ibanez acoustic. She still plays it more than the Gretsch Junior Jet II I bought her to fool around on.

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"...The final truth is, there is no truth..." - (from "Nice n' Neat" by the Boomtown Rats)

"Green guys" are not against using wood. They're against cutting old growth forests without replanting. To say that they will one day stop all tree felling is a silly thing to say

As for Esteban, I've met him. Here's the real story, sans the bad satire.

Stephen Paul is from Pittsburgh, he really was in a bad auto accident that reduced his skills and kept him away from the guitar, and he most likely developed the Esteban look to cover some scarring from that accident.

He gigged around the country, and somewhere along the line attended a concert or a master class where he got an autographed picture of Segovia (he says in LA). Like many artists, Segovia likely asked him who to sign it for, and when Stephen gave his name, Segovia used the Spanish, signing the photo, "To Esteban... one who loves the guitar." While the Maestro was known to sign photos in this way, that fact was obviously not widely known in Arizona....

Which is where Stephen found his fortune. He gigged around Phoenix with a quartet, eventually becoming "Artist in Residence" at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch resort in Scottsdale (where I met him while I was music director on a corporate show at this resort back in 1997). There, Esteban,as he was now known, developed the hat and shades look, and began developing a local legend around himself. The Scottsdale housewives were fascinated by the man-in-black who barely spoke, allowing his guitar to speak for him, and he packed the joint every Friday and Saturday night. His CD's (dozens of them) were available in the hotel gift shop, he commanded ridiculous fees for personal appearances (I talked to him about a party attached to my show, and when he told me his price, I laughed and said, "Esteban, they can hear you for free in the lounge!"). The autographed photo of Segovia became part of the legend... Esteban claimed to have been a student of the Maestro for five years. As many of you have noted, his playing gives the lie to this, as Segovia would not have taught the kind of flamenco techniques that Esteban uses, but he claims he lost his classical chops in the accident. ALso, he is not mentioned in any biography of Segovia.

During this period. Esteban made a comfy living, and was already bringing his daughter the gypsy fiddler into the family biz. He and his band displayed a kind of ossified competence: his right hand was excellent, and he produced a strong and powerful string tone. His left hand technique was adequate for the demands of the music, and, frankly, the crowds went crazy for him. Never mind that he played the same material for years, and still plays it on HSN. Say what you like, but he was an impressive player, and a rockstar within a 50 miles radius of the Hyatt.

Soon after I met him, Joy Mangano at Ingenious Designs (inventor of the Miracle Mop) was in a similar show at the Hyatt and was knocked out by Esteban's persona. She signed him to a development/distribution contract and hawked his albums on QVC. Shortly after, Ingenious Designs was purchased by HSN, who created the products that Esteban now lends his name to, and the rest is history.

And that's the rest of the story! Thanks Slapchop!

My wife got me the 50 Anv. Impala Edition due to the fact that my first car was a 1958 Impala which is painted on the back and it does look pretty cool. Having said that I am glad this was not my first guitar because I don't think I would have continued to play. It would not stay in tune and the action was about 3/8 of an inch high at the 12 fret. My first attempt ever to shave a saddle ended up in fret buzz. So after a new saddle it does play somewhat better.
The tone is somewhat "muddy" though. I don't get much out of the instructional DVDs that came with it either not really my style. When you look inside the wood looks decent enough, but now that I've had it for a while (Oct 2008) the top finish is starting to look wavy. When you think about it seems odd that they would try and market something like this. I bet that there are very few player who have ever seen a 58 Impala much less owned one.

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Squire Affinity Strat
Blues Junior
Frontman 15G
Boss DS-1....and
an Esteban Impala 50th Anniversary that my wife got for me on HSN...my first car at 16 a 58 Impala which is painted on the back.

Even if it was a joke, one fact remains. I still do not like him. He sold crappy guitars and lessons on HSN. I always thought he could play, just did not like the persona and crappy merchandize.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I'm with you all on the persona thing. It was just so contrived that it epitomized what is bad in music marketing and even just marketing. The whole mysterious man in black thing just makes me puke.

Having said that, I bought one of his packeges and donated it to a battered women's shelter for a homeless child's Christmas present. I thought that it might be the only opportunity for one of these kids to get exposed to anything other than a beating. The guitar came. It was exactly as advertised - no more and no less. It had everything needed to get a child at least started including the DVDs. I did not watch any of them, so I can't say they were useless or not, but I'm hoping there were not.

I would not buy another, but the one I did buy served it's purpose.

estebans a fake? i dont think i can return all the zorro outfits i just bought

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Guitars: American Standard Strat, American Vintage 52 Tele, Gretsch Power Jet

Amps: Frontman 212R, Hot Rod DeVille 212 w/ Vintage 30's, AC30 w/ Greenbacks

Pedals: Boss Tuner, XOTiC AC-Booster, MXR Phase 90, Line 6 DL4

Slapchop so somewhere in the house is a picture of you with your arm around the big E.lol I have to say this was all funny and interesting at the same time. You could see the guy could play but I saw 4 differant infomercials and he played the same songs on everyone. The only thing I doubted was the Segovia story as I had seen a two hour show on him years ago and you had to be fron another planet for him to teach you and he was hard. Ans anyone that plays guitar remotely had to know what they were getting for that price as they threw in everything but the kitchen sink. Hey I bet he got a lot of people playing that never would have.