From Paris Banchetti to Miami with Love
A year ago I had an accident with my Warwick bass guitar and I was seeking the best repair option in my situation. My friend Jorge tipped me off to Paris Banchetti, a wood working genius down in Miami.
When I arrived at the shop, I was in awe at the sight of the hand crafted classical guitars and upright basses. Then I caught my first glimpse of the Practical Bass, (patented by Banchetti) and I knew I came to the right place.
Like the great luthiers from his home country of Italy, Banchetti continues a tradition of crafting musical works of art with skill and love. I had the pleasure of chatting with him in his shop one day.
Steven: How long have you been doing this type of work?
Paris: Fifty-two years.
S: What inspired you to work on musical instruments?
P: It was pure chance, I was a cabinet maker living in Sao Palo Brazil and I looked into the newspaper to find better employment and I see an add saying:
“Cabinet maker needed, don’t come if you’re not competent.”
I was competent and I knew that. I went and I found a man making the rosette of a guitar and you see the mosaico all around. I said do you make this?
“Yes.”
I said I want to learn.
“Stay.”
So I stayed twenty-one months with him. Then we went back down to Uruguay together, he proposed for me to go over there and I accepted. Then after five months in Uruguay, he wasn’t giving me too much money so I said look either you pay me better otherwise I go away because what you offer me is less than what someone who makes chairs is making.
He said, “I cannot.”
Well then I go away but remember if I go away I will not make chairs.
So I went away and I started working on my own. I was going around to the guitar teachers showing my instrument and I was very welcome and then I started. I always wondered where do all my guitars go, where? I would start fifteen or twenty at a time and they were sold before I completed them. I made so many instruments when I was in Uruguay.
Then my goal was to come to the States, but the American Embassy wouldn’t give me the visa, because they knew if I put my foot on this country I wouldn’t go away, as an Italian. The Italian quota was always full. So I came here and looked for a work contract and the Allegro Music House gave me the contract. But in order to get the visa I would have to go back and wait.
When I came the law that allowed me to stay if I got a work contract changed so I had to go away from the country and wait. So I went back to Uruguay and told my wife we go back to Italy to wait for the visa. After one year the visa wouldn’t come, so I said where in Europe can I earn my living? So we decided to go to Paris, France. There I went and the second day I was there I sold two guitars, which I brought with me. And then I started and it was unbelievable how I was accepted by the guitar community.
S: How long did you stay in Paris?
P: Six years. Then the visa came but we loved that city so much, we were in love and my wife had two Paris’ in her heart, me (my name is Paris) and the city.
Upright masterpieces in the foreground and classical beauties hanging in the back.
We loved that city so much. She said, “What are we going to do?” I said, I don’t want to regret not having gone, so we came here and here I am for thirty-five years, since 1975.
S: That’s a fascinating story. What was your impression of Miami when you arrived?
P: It was very easy to adapt. I was happy to be here because it was never cold especially for my wife who suffered in the cold.
S: Do you miss Paris?
P: All the time. My daughter is there now, she is on her honeymoon and called me from there today.
S: What do you prefer making, upright basses or classical guitars?
B: I don’t mind, either of them. To me its just put the wood together.
S: How did you come up with the idea of the Practical Bass?
B: Well there was a bass player, Don Mast; he was the one who got me in the bass field. I had a shop on Bird Avenue, in the Grove and he came in with a destroyed upright bass. It had twenty-five thousand cracks along the sides, the back and the top, and the scroll was a lion's head. That bass was the dream of his life, he always wanted to have that bass. He came to my workshop with another man showed me the bass said "can you repair it?" I looked said yes so the man gave me twenty-two hundred dollars, he bought it for him. Then I repaired I charged him thirty-two hundred dollars. Then he took it somewhere to be apprised and they said it was worth forty thousand dollars.
S: Wow!
B: Then he had a very tall stick, wood electronic and asked me "Why don't you build an electrionic upright". I told him I don't work with electronic and he came back and said why don't you blah blah blah. One day I open the door to my workshop take a pencil draw it and it came out.
And then I went to Los Angeles to a bass show and someone saw the bass and one day I received a phone call, it was the bass player of Frank Sinatra. He said someone told me that you make an upright bass blah blah. Ok I will be in Miami. Ok when you are here, call me. He came here, called to me and I went to the hotel to pick him up to my workshop and he said how much? I said, so much. And he pay it like a gentleman.
And then also the bassplayer of Dolly Parton and Billy Joel bought the bass. When I finished it I took it to New York, Washington, San Francisco to show. In New York someone said but you know it’s very practical. I said look at the name you have Practical Bass. You open it up and it gives you the same sound and feel as the big one. It is very light and easy to carry.
S: This is beautiful work you do!
B: Well, I never saw a customer come back protesting because they are my best publicity, you cannot destroy it. And also I like to go in the street with my head up. Besides I’ve lived in five countries and I realize that we all have one thing, hunger of respect.
I’m not religious but I observe only one of the Ten Commandments, because all the rest go around the same. Don’t do to unto others what you don’t want to be done to yourself. And in philosophy they say, act as if what you do should become a universal law. That is what I believe and also I reached a conclusion years ago that life without friendship, I don’t have any interest.
Like they say in this country, brothers are given friends are chosen, or they chose you. I believe the conscious exists and the one who doesn’t use it properly the day is going to awake and they are going to have a problem.
I try not to give way to remorse, you can regret something but you don’t have no remorse. Well, that is experience, I was always very curious I read all my life so much. I wanted to know the truth but realized that the truth doesn’t exist; it’s a question of opinion.
S: Those are all good philosophies. Is there anyone you look up to, like Antonio Stradivari?
P: I believe that there have been many Stradivaris, since him, but he got the name and his violins are worth millions of dollars.
S: Do you feel like you chose the right direction when you stopped making cabinets?
P: I always wanted to make instruments but there’s one thing it takes so much patience. A customer about twenty years ago said, I guess you put all your love in your work. I said look, many times its hatred, but always pride. Because I don’t want anyone coming back and pointing the finger at what I have done. I have to be the first one to see what has to be done.
S: You do a great service to the community of Miami, thank you!
P: My pleasure.
Paris Banchetti's website
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