During the first Guitar Festival in 2017 I missed Rafael Aguirre’s concert but I really don’t remember why, some family issue I am sure. So this year when I heard he was coming again I made sure that I could go. I enjoy a good guitar concert but I also like to know who the good players are and be able to make reccommendations to those who are showing some interest in the world of the classical guitar. Last night’s concert was excellent, very musical and soulful and technically perfect as well. The music was well-chosen and although mostly Spanish it went beyond the so often repeated repertory of Granada concerts. I will also mention the ease that Rafael has with the audience and his efforts to bring the music closer to us through a personal anecdote or a brief explanation of the history of the piece in question. This makes all the difference in the world to those who are not asiduous concert-goers and helps in the struggle to take the guitar to a wider audience. Thank you Rafa.

I am looking forward to tuning up with these new machine heads.

The opening concert of the Granada Guitar Festival yesterday was a pleasure. The Carlos V palace on the Alhambra grounds is the perfect place for a late evening concert and the music was excellent. The OCG quartet are excellent musicians and joined Pepe Romero for the second half of his concert. I love the guitar and I love chamber music so Boccherini is a perfect union of the two. The Festival continues until the closing concert on August 8. See the full programme here.

It is very clear to me that there are more advantages to setting the back bars into the linings as opposed to removing the lining in that area and glueing a support under the bar. Firstly there is an extra step involved in using a separate support. Secondly those supports are difficult to shape after the fact (the top ones are easy to shape with a bellied chisel if you are putting the top on first and then the back). The last disadvantage has to do with glue squeeze out. A pocket makes a very self contained joint whereas the open lining with the support is open and allows glue flow if you are not very careful, especially if the brace end is high. And that is the problem, I use supports for the back bars on my Torres copies because that is what he did but also because with those unscallopped bars the bar end is too high to allow a pocket with enough support.

This is the Torres bracing from SE 153.