Guitarra en los jardines del Falla.  Falla is the name given to the classical music auditorium here in Granada (Auditorio Manuel de Falla).  This will be the third year that guitar concerts will be offered in the courtyard.  A lovely, cool venue for wonderful music.  Here is the lineup.

14 de julio 2016

Rafael Aguirre

21 de julio 2016

Eduardo Inestal

28 de julio 2016

David Martínez

4 de agosto 2016

Alí Arango

11 de agosto 2016

Liu Xianji (Ganador Concurso Internacional Gredos San Diego (Madrid)

18 de agosto 2016

Javier Conde

25 de agosto 2016

Deion Cho

1 de septiembre 2016

J. Clerch

Visit the webpage for tickets.

One might think that these two makers – the 19th century maker of the first recognizably modern guitar and the most famous maker of the 20th century – made very similar instruments and in general that would be correct.  Both made lightly-built, responsive and beautiful guitars and in general used the integral neck and fan bracing of some description.  However, both makers experimented extensively, Torres with body shape and tornavoz while Santos used many different fan and transverse bar layouts.

I am making one of my very much in demand Torres copies right now alongside a Santos copy which has also proven to be quite successful.  The depth measurements of a guitar body affect the air volume and hence the resonant frequencies, it can make the guitar more or less comfortable for the guitarist to hold and play and of course it changes the aesthetics. This picture shows just what a difference in depth there is between these two models. There are a few other differences as well, the Santos is made with thinner top and sides and the lower transverse bar is placed diagonally.  I had never experimented with that configuration before but I am liking the results.

Alí Arango

Martes 28 junio – 22.00h

Corral del Carbón

Cañizares

Martes 21 junio – 22.30h

Patio de los Arrayanes

Click on the image above for a complete list of all activities.

I have always made a high proportion of 640 instruments as they sound great and the earlier instruments have encouraged guitarists to order one.  630 has not been so popular but recently I have had a few people asking and seen some discussions online about where to get a 630 guitar.  It seems there is a scarcity of quality short-scale instruments and players are forced to buy mass-produced products that are often made in China under an American name.  Ordering a short-scale from a maker one trusts should be an obvious option but for some reason guitarists are nervous about how it will turn out.

I have a smaller mold made by my teacher for short-scale guitars that I have never used and so I thought that I would make a 630 scale and see if there is a serious market.  The top is very nice and stiff and the wood is special as I decided not to use Indian rosewood for this one.

I don’t have this blog open to comments because I am sure I wouldn’t find the time to approve them before they go up (you know, spam). However, I do get some feedback by email and facebook, here are two messages about the last post.  I’ll have to take more care to get my information first-hand in the future.  Here is the webpage for the Romanillos museum.