The Granada tradition of guitar-making is a very important one and I have tried to encourage and contribute to documentation of it. I just received a copy of the latest edition of Romanillos’ book about Antonio de Torres and would like to share the quote that supports one of Granada’s claims to fame. The text comes from a letter written by a friend of Torres to Francisco Rodríguez Torres in 1931.

“In his youth don Antonio moved to Vera where he learned the carpenter’s trade and where he married at the age of 23 with a sister of the paternal grandfather of the present parish priest, don Alfonso López Sánchez, and they had a daughter. Soon after becoming a father, he went to Granada where he made his first guitar, and he was very content to achieve his wish. Subsequently he moved to Sevilla where he took up residence. In that city he was married for the second time and the celebrated concert artist don Julián Arcas was his best man.”

Creating simple purfling can be done in many ways and I have tried a few. If you are confident that you can keep the final width constant you can glue the different veneers together in a mold with the shape of the guitar. In a addition to the problem of glueing up you add the problem of cutting the strips off once it is bent. A fine blade in a band saw and a raised up support works all right but still takes some skill to keep each strip even. You can then plane each strip if necessary.

Another option is to glue only two veneers together and then combine them at the time of installation. This way they don’t need to be pre-bent. I do that with the Torres copy. For the rest of my guitars I glue the four or five veneers and then put them in the Fox bender. I use hide glue as some of the synthetics don’t stand up to the heat. The problem with bending glued veneers is that they often want to twist as they bend and this makes them useless. The way around this can be seen in the photo. Adhesive Kraft paper tape is used to fix the purfling strips together so that they can’t twist.

Brazillian Rosewood continues to be the most sought-after wood for guitar back and sides. I think you can get the sound you want by using many other woods including non-tropicals. However I tend to stick to Indian rosewood and maple. Here you can see two very different looks with each species. One flamenca negra, two Torres copies and one classical.

“Don’t do what I do, do what I say.”

I really like the design of this rosette up close but when you move back and look at the whole guitar is loses the definition and looks a bit indistinct. A good rosette should be interesting up close but also have some defined character that adds to the instrument at 2 metres or so. Once again I was using up pieces of rosettes made years ago just trying for something new.

This prestigious guitar competition takes place in the little town of La Herradura on the Granada coast. So far I have not been able to find a list of participants. Eliminatory rounds will begin today and continue on through Friday. Finals will take place Saturday evening in the Civic Centre Auditorium.  More information here.