Good news! One more summer of guitar aficionados descending en masse upon Granada. I have met many, many guitarists, teachers, and builders here since this festival started three years ago. The festival has always brought some great concerts and young guitar students as well as the guitar making competition which seems to be gaining more traction each year. To be held July 28 to 31. If you are making guitars and would like to increase your visibility and show your guitars to GSI president David Collet, this is your opportunity. All of the necessary information is on the webpage. Whether you are a player or a maker there is something for you here this summer.
Tag Archives: artisan
Rosettes
Availability
Every guitarist has specific needs (and even whims) and so needs a specific guitar. This is one of the reasons why Granada is such a fantastic place to come as a guitarist looking for a guitar. If you find you don’t fit with what Antonio Marín or Manuel Bellido are making there are a myriad of other makers within walking distance. I have found recently that making historical copies has been a great option for me but the fact that I never have all of my models on hand means that when visitors come they can only sometimes try the model that might best fit with their desires or playing style. Over the years I have welcomed many great players to my workshop but I have not always had the model of guitar I would have liked to show them and sometimes had no guitar available at all! I want to make sure that I have the full spectrum of my work available for audition when guitarits visit Granada. Here are a few I would like to meet again soon.
Marcin Dylla
Carles Trepat
Alex Garrobé
Alexei Khorev
Zoran Dukic
Gabriel Estarellas
Carsten Grondal
Edson Lopes
Aaron Larget-Caplan
and a long et cetera
So hopefully if my clients can be patient with their comissions over the course of this year and the next I will be putting aside one of each of my models: Santos copy, Torres SE 153, La invencible, my flamenco and my concert model. I think I will not bother with the 1900 Vicente Arias double back as that didn’t get much of a response and as for the romantic guitar no one is willing to pay 7000 Euros for that so it too is pretty much off the menu.
The first element in this “collection” is the 1924 Santos Hernandez, faithfully copied from the original which Andrés Segovia donated to the Musical Library in Madrid and is conserved there. Someone get the word out to Russell and Barrueco that now is the time to visit Granada. 😉
Getting started
The first step in making new guitars is choosing wood. I sorted through my stash of american rosewood and checked that my back and side matching was still to my liking and chose the wood for the next batch of instruments. I still have some very nice wood and just love getting it out, smelling it and seeing how it responds to the tools. I’ll be making three Santos copies and one maple Torres copy. I still make the Torres quite regularly but I might well end up making more Santos than Torres. Here are two photos of the latest Santos copy I made.
Welcome to Almeria
Antonio de Torres’ house
I took a little trip to Almeria yesterday and spent the day with Carlos González, Aarón García, Pepe Zapata and, of course, Antonio de Torres Jurado. The importance of Almeria in terms of guitar-making is not limited to Torres but he does represent the focal point and one of their few international references from the past. However, the fact that the town council agreed some years ago to establish a museum dedicated to his memory is a huge coup given the spanish tendency to ignore the guitar as a money-maker, tourist draw and cultural reference. We stopped in to visit the Casa Museo de Antonio de Torres in la Cañada and although there wasn’t much to see there are plans to organize some activities there in the near future. For now a peña flamenca meets there on a regular basis. The highlight of the day was an extensive tour of the Antonio de Torres museum in Almeria itself. The occasion was the exhibition “Cinco siglos de la guitarra española” centered around an incredible guitar by Thomás Durán from 1684. 
This is the oldest guitar from Spain! At least as far as reliably dated instruments go. I found the documentation displayed quite interesting as one display case showed publications about the Durán guitar and another showed the first literature dedicated to the guitar. Some of the more interesting instruments which can be seen in the museum right now are a guitars by Panormo, Roudhloff, Maccaferri, Aubert a Troyes; these all recently donated to the museum by an English collector. There are a few well-made copies of interesting instruments and a few more minor pieces and a very unusual Torres guitar.
The exhibition was organized by Carlos González, well-known maker of early instruments and tireless historical researcher. It was a pleasure to spend some time with him and to learn more about the history of the museum and his plans to expand the collection and the activities offered there.
Pepe Zapata, Carlos González and Aarón García