T
he idea of GRAN was conceived at guitar school with the strong emphasis on further development of sound production. The words of Igor Stravinsky who foresaw the invention on new hybrid instrument that would combine the best of Eastern and Western culture by the end of the 20th century, were well known at that school.
COINCIDENCE?
As the inventors of the GRAN applied for a patent, they found out that their idea was not entirely new. The thoughts had run along similar lines in the 18th century already: Stradivari’s baroque guitar with two strings of the 4th and 5th pairs positioned lower than the others, still exists. Unlike on GRAN, however, the strings were made from same material.
PRECONDITIONS
Metal strings sound sharp, cold, thin and, one might say sour.
The sound of nylon strings is soft, warm, wide and, may be called sweet.
Before the inventors had time to anticipate GRAN’s characteristics, the Americans had already called it „Hybrid“. Later this name was revised into „Grapefruit“. The inventors are confident that GRAN will spread worldwide.
GODFATHER – I
One of the GRAN inventors is very fond of the Beatles and Paul McCartney especially. Therefore the first successful GRAN guitar model was named ‘Michelle’, after the famous Beatles’ song. When he came to know that the BBC was going to broadcast a live program in Russian featuring Paul McCartney, he decided to ring them up, even though the chances to actually reach Paul during the program were almost nil. But he was lucky. Or was it destiny? Anatoliy Olshanskiy managed to speak to Paul McCartney during the BBC program and even played the GRAN “Michelle” for him through the phone. Sir Paul was impressed enough to agree to become a GRAN godfather.
The “parents” of the GRAN set out to meet her famous “relative”.