In 1967 Master Guitar Luther Bill Lewis created a new design for the Concert Guitar. He combined both the traditional Classical and Flamenco guitar designs, woods and virtues with his own unique trademark, a revolutionary very thin and flat backside laminated ebony neck. This new guitar design personified speed and power and facilitated longer finger reaches upon the guitar neck. It was light weight and durable and it resonated with the deep and sweet Classical Guitar tones as well as with the ripping and stinging timbres acquainted with the most vibrant Flamenco Guitars. This new concert guitar design proved to be versatile to be able to effectively perform Classical and Flamenco Guitar repertoire as well as jazz and fusion styles. This guitar packed a power punch! Bill Lewis named his creation the "The New Age Guitar".
Bill Lewis displayed this instrument in his guitar shop in Vancouver B.C. Canada from 1967, (where it remained unprocured), until 1973, it being rejected by the Classical and Flamenco guitar communities who followed the more purist tradition. Due to regrettable circumstances Bill Lewis only made this one "New Age Concert Guitar" and thereafter for undisclosed reasons refused all offers to sell his trademark secrets to several major global guitar companies who had failed in trying to copy his design. No guitar Luther to date has been able to duplicate the Bill Lewis "New Age Guitar".
In 1967 Antonio Pisac from Dugababa, Dalmatia, (a landed immigrant living in Vancouver B.C. Canada), began to develop his own personal techniques for the Concert Guitar. His techniques and style would later become known as the "Adriatic Guitar". In 1973 and 1974 Antonio Pisac performed concerts and shows with another landed immigrant to Canada, Paul Cypress who adopted Antonio's techniques. Antonio Pisac retired from performing music in late 1974.
In 1973 Paul Cypress had procured the Bill Lewis "New Age Concert Guitar" and to show respect to the great guitar Luther Bill Lewis, in early 1975 he named his first LP recording "The New Age Guitar" wherein he combined Classical and Flamenco Guitar techniques along with the newly developed Antonio Pisac "Adriatic Guitar" techniques. He also used electric guitar techniques intermittently spiced with Rock Music electronic technology and thus emerged a new modern sound in the Concert Guitar World. The Bill Lewis "New Age Guitar" proved to be perfect for this Concert Guitar fusion style. Several Paul Cypress LP record releases followed on the national labels RTB Records, Beograd and Jugoton Records, Zagreb in the former Yugoslavia, and on Quest Records Canada with distribution in over thirty countries including Spain, Cuba, Russia, Red China, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and Eastern and Western Europe.
In August 1975 Paul Cypress performed a prestigious solo concert in Dubrovnik, Croatia presenting the "Adriatic Guitar" and "New Age Music". In 1976, Toronto film producer Michael Fuller made a film in Dubrovnik, Croatia for CBC Television featuring Paul Cypress as a guitarist and composer. In 1982 the Bill Lewis "New Age" Concert Guitar was stolen to be returned broken in 1986. Milovan Stanic a famous Artist and Craftsman from Omis, Dalmatia restored the guitar and painted an Adriatic Sea coast scene upon it. Thereafter it also became known as the "Adriatic Guitar". It is used to this day for Concerts and Recordings.
