The Story of How Roger Got His Perfect Birthday Present

It was March 2010. Roger was in his studio, working, when he got a telephone call from David Chin. David introduced himself as a Sabah-born Australian, a retired engineer who has been pursuing his hobby of making guitars for several years now. In his research, David stumbled upon Roger's site on the Internet. David was back in Sabah for a holiday and decided to contact Roger for a chat.

The luthier and the guitarist met, spoke and exchanged notes. Two days later, David called Roger and asked if he could make him a guitar. For the record, Roger already has nine guitars: one harp, two Matons, one Fender Strat, one Yamaha arch top, one Admira classical guitar, two Yamaha acoustic guitars, one Yamaha silent guitar and a Kapok. Hahahaa...Just kidding. No, no Kapok.

David wanted to make Roger a steel-stringed guitar because he knew that is what Roger uses most now. But Roger said he is starting to experiment with new sounds and that he'd like a nylon-stringed one instead. Turns out that suited David just fine because nylon-strings were his specialty.

A slew of emails followed after David returned home to Melbourne. Roger sent him several specifications and told him some preferences he had for this new guitar. David made a prototype that he had several people test out. Armed with their feedback, he started work on two similar guitars: one with a cedar top and one with a spruce top.

In June, Roger got an email from David, "I just bought my ticket to Sabah and I'm bringing your guitar back with me!" (you readers realize that I'm dramatizing this part for the blog,right?)

Days passed. Weeks rolled on. Months went by.... and finally, one day in October, David came home. And he brought with him, a cedar top nylon-stringed guitar, which he prompted gave to Roger to test. That very night, Roger Wang came home with his new friend. And as usual, whether it's a new guitar or a new phone or gadget, it's a late night as they got acquainted.

On October 31, 2010, I finally meet this mystical luthier. Roger, Sara and I brought David, his 84-year-old mom, his sister, brother-in-law and niece out for dinner. After dinner, all of us drove up to Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort and Spa where Roger's friends from the band, Elixir (see picture), were performing at the lounge. Roger joined them and played (in public) for the first time ever, his brand new crossover guitar, watched by David and his family.

Made of eight different types of wood, this nylon-stringed guitar is a daring variation of the classical guitar. It's smaller. But it sounds big. It's based on a traditional classical design but has features of a steel string acoustic guitar. That's why it's called a crossover guitar. Roger thinks David may have stumbled over a (musical) goldmine here - starting with this guitar.

Roger absolutely loves how this crossover guitar sounds! It arrived a week before his birthday. So, between this guitar and our new 42"LCD TV (our old one went into a coma a few days before his birthday), Roger had one helluva 36th birthday.

Thanks, David (below), for making Roger so happy.

p.s. Late one night (late = after midnight) recently, Roger woke me up with Tommy Emmanuel's "Stay Close To Me", played with this new guitar. I was absolutely mesmerized! I've heard this song many times before but it'd never sounded so wonderful. It's like the guitar was made to ... sing this song. I told Roger and he said it's because this guitar has soul. Wow!

p.p.s. For a more in-depth coverage of The Making Of...The Crossover Guitar, read Joanna Funk's blog.