I will give you the answer tomorrow.
Author Archives: johnray
Guitarra Badalona: Jornadas Internacionales de la Guitarra 28, 29, 30 abril, 2017
The Associació de la Guitarra de Badalona holds a guitar festival every year but none so ambitious as this one. This year it coincides with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Antonio de Torres Jurado, often touted as the “father of the modern guitar” or the “Stradivarius of the guitar”. Don’t miss this festival with its concerts:
Antonio López Palacios
Cuarteto Terpsicore
Abel García Ayala
Carles Trepat
Lectures by experts in their fields and a fascinating exhibition of careful replicas of Antonio de Torres’ guitars. I will be lecturing at 5pm on Saturday and my Torres copy will be exhibited with 7 others. I don’t know if there will be auditions of the replicas but here is mine.
Cordefactum April 14-16
One of the best lutherie schools in the world is the Cmb at Puurs (Belgium) and part of what makes them great is their commitment to research and dissemination. As I have mentioned before their role in the Leonardo Guitar Research Project is vital to its success. Another great iniciative is the Cordefactum festival which is usually held every two years, the first having been held in 2004. The focus is on different instruments each year and this year once again the guitar takes centre stage. Lecturers, players and builders come together to share their knowledge and experiences. The lineup over the years has been quite impressive: Rolf Eichinger, Bruno Marlat, Paul Fischer, Andrea Tacchi, Daniele Chiesa, Pavel Steidl, Fabio Zanon, Fernando Espí and Rafael Aguirre. This year I have been invited to speak about the Granada school of guitar-making and will be speaking on Sunday at 1:30pm. For those of you wishing more information please visit the site here.
I am looking forward to hearing some of the guitars made with non-tropical woods, meeting some old friends, catching the concerts and lectures and of course trying some strong Belgian beer.
The City of the Guitar
Guitar things are starting to happen in Granada! Friday saw eleven or twelve guitar-makers meeting with conservatory students and presenting their work. The idea is a good one and we hope it will be repeated next year with even more guitar-makers present. The evening wrapped up with a concert by guitar students from the Conservatory of Motril. I only managed to stay for the solo pieces but was very impressed with the level of playing.
May will bring a fascinating exhibition hosted by Caja Rural (one of the local banks) and organized by guitar hero Gloria Medina who is also putting on the 3rd edition of the Manuel de Falla garden concerts this summer.
Then we have the CSU summer course starting in July
webpage Apparently the deadline has been extended so there is still time to get on board. I have heard through the grapevine that there will be other guitar-related activities coinciding with this.
Don’t be afraid of CITES
There has been some considerable turmoil about CITES especially among the guitar-makers as we have had to jump through quite a few hoops in order to legally export rosewood guitars. However, for the clients it really doesn’t make much of a difference. Of course I am talking about those woods in appendix II, not Brazillian. There are a few countries which apparently require an import permit as well as the export permit (we take care of the latter) but I have yet to come accross any of those. No permit required at all from one EU country to another and you can travel anywhere with your instrument after you get it home thanks to the personal effects exemption. You will really only be affected if you wish to sell your guitar overseas someday and then you will be applying for permits. 
So go ahead and order that Amazon rosewood guitar, drool over the African Blackwood back that looks so good on the maker’s webpage and especially breathe in that smell deeply (and breathe easy) when your Indian rosewood baby arrives in the UPS truck. Although some makers have Brazillian, I personally would not purchase an instrument made with it as travelling with it requires some complicated documentation and selling it might present problems as well.