I've been thinking for a couple of years already that I should share a review of my guitar in case it's helpful to anyone else here. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better at giving back to a couple of wonderful communities (like this one) where I have gained invaluable information by lurking without getting around to posting much myself. So here goes:
I'm a hobbyist confectioner who makes 15-20 pounds of pâtes de fruits, several kinds of meltaways, hundreds of truffles, a thousand or so caramels, and at least one giant sheet of nougat... during an annual month-long frenzy every holiday season. And pretty much not at all during the rest of the year. The first year I made pâtes de fruits, I made 11 flavors in 12x12 inch frames, and cut all of them into 22mm squares by hand. After which I said I would never make pâtes de fruits again unless my fairy godmother somehow magically provided me with a guitar because I would never be able to afford to buy one. That was maybe 12 years ago.
Two moves, a few major life changes, and one excellent relationship later... I was sharing photos of my massive one-time pâtes de fruits extravaganza with my best beloved in advance of our first Christmas together, when he said (being at the time a complete innocent with respect to all confectionery-related complexities), "You should do that for the holidays this year—the grandkids would love it!" Whereupon I explained the cutting problem, and how real confectioners have these amazing tools called "guitars," at which point I did a google search to show him a picture of what I was talking about... and discovered to my surprise that Martellato had developed a mini one.
Two weeks later, this was delivered as my early Christmas present that year:
It's this one: https://www.martellato.com/product/mini-22mm-easy-system-guitar.html I've had it for about 6 years now and I love it. Sometimes I think it might be nice to have the double one instead, but that's usually only on the occasions when I get distracted and forget to raise the frame until after I've already turned the slab. Which happens maybe once a year on average. And since I like to cut everything in squares, and all the squares are the same size, the single frame is really ideal for me.
While my confectionery activities are seasonal, the quantity of products that I churn out during that limited time is significant and I pretty much do all of it by myself. This guitar has been an enormous time saver for me. When I cut all those pâtes de fruits by hand that first year, it took me three days to get it done. This year I timed myself cutting them on the guitar—I had seven flavors in 12x12 slabs and it took me less than an hour to do all of it. And that includes the sugaring.
One thing I would recommend to anyone who may be interested in a smaller size guitar like this one is to give some consideration to the size of the platform vs. the size of the slabs you will be cutting. That seems really obvious on the surface, and yet I ended up being surprised by how much trial and error it took for me to figure out the most efficient slab dimensions for using the guitar without wasting more product than necessary. That being said, I've just recently started the process of converting all my piped/rolled truffle recipes to slabbed ones so it's possible I'm more obsessed with this issue at the moment than I really need to be... or will ever be again. 😂
Oh and a related thing worth mentioning is that, while it can cut a 9x9 inch slab of pâte de fruit (which covers the entire platform), it has a substantially easier time cutting a 9x6 inch slab. I'm risk averse about things like breaking the wires, so I choose to be cautious. What I do with my 12x12 inch slabs of pâtes de fruits is simply cut them in half and then cut 3" off the end—this gives me two 6x9 inch slabs, and two 6x3 inch slabs. I cut the 6x9 ones, and then I put the two smaller ones side by side on the guitar arranged so that a wire will go between them.
As for maintenance... I haven't had to do any. It does come with extra wires, and various tools for replacing and tightening them, but so far I haven't had any need to learn how to do any of that.
Cleaning this guitar isn't difficult, but I don't think it's like cleaning most other guitars. The frame can go in the dishwasher, but the platform can't. To clean the platform thoroughly, you unscrew the acorn nuts (there are two on each side) and pull out the threaded rods. This releases the platform... which (very surprisingly unless you're prepared for it, which I was not) turns out to be about 3 dozen separate, indentical flat pieces. Mine is currently all apart, drying next to the sink in my candy kitchen, and I can go take a picture of it if anyone wants to see what the deconstructed guitar looks like. It was a little unnerving the first time I disassembled it, but now I'm used to it. It's actually very simple to clean, and a piece of cake to reassemble in just a couple of minutes.
Bottom line: For a confectioner like me, who just has one massive push to get a lot done in a short time once a year, this thing is a godsend. It would also be ideal for someone who does smaller amounts of confectionery on a regular basis. For a professional confectioner with a busy retail operation, on the other hand, I think it would likely be frustratingly inefficient.
it's perfect for me, though. And just one of many reasons why my best beloved deserves to have all the candy he could possible wish for. What an amazing gift! ❤️
