Category Archives: Guitar making

Juan Román Padilla

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The idea to write something about this maker comes from the book that is being put together about the guitar-makers of Granada.  The author did the interviews back in February and wasn’t able to get in touch with Juan Román so there is nothing about him in the article which could be described as a timeline of the living makers.  However, I went to visit Juan a few days ago just to get some information for his catalogue page in the book as the cut-off date for additions was yesterday.  There might be some criticism about including him in the book because the makers wanted the book to be limited to active builders (Juan is retired). At the same time a few makers (Rafael Moreno for one) thought it important for Juan to be included.  Thankfully, the author has the last word.

Juan Román Padilla was born in Granada on August 25, 1928. His education started at the age of 14 at the art school here in Granada (Escuela de Artes y Oficios) when he signed up for drawing.  In his own words he went from that to drafting and then into “artistic woodworking” in the first year because his aptitudes were much more in line with woodworking.  At the same time he started working with his uncle who was a cabinet-maker.   The story of how he first came to build a bandurria starts with him and a friend happening upon some younger boys playing for a group of their friends.  They asked if they could play and at the end of the evening Juan’s friend ended up being careless with the bandurria and it got knocked over and basically reduced to splinters.  As Juan was by this time a competent woodworker he was the logical choice to repair the damage.  Thus began a career that spanned at least 50 years.

Juan’s father was a music teacher, composer and guitarist and so he put both the rebuilt bandurria and the one Juan made based on that one through their paces and continued to guide his son in that respect as long as he was able.  Juan told me that his father had received a guitar from Marcelo Barbero in return for having taught the lengendary maker to read and write and had visited him often in Madrid on his concert dates in that city.  Juan accompanied his father on a few occasions and found Barbero to be very generous with his advice (due perhaps to the gratitude he felt towards the father.    Juan never found Eduardo Ferrer nor Manuel de la Chica to be at all willing to help him learn.  Juan was careful not to speak ill of Ferrer as he valued highly the fact that Eduardo had bought guitars from Juan for sale in his shop.  One thing I found particularily interesting is Juan’s account of Antonio Marin and Manuel Bellido coming to him very early in their joint venture looking for work.  He then agreed to take instruments that they had made and sell them under his own label giving them some of their first steady work.

Juan has taught a few people to make guitars:  Sumio Kurosawa, the brother of the japanese guitar mogul who then turned that knowledge to good use (we assume), his uncle the cabinet-maker who never made many guitars, and an american whose last name he could’t remember.    His guitars were sold in different parts of Spain, in Germany by Hohner and in many other countries including Japan.

Paul Reed Smith

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So why does an electric guitar-maker have a place on this spanish guitar site?  Well, it turns out that we share a common inspiration (so do hundreds of other builders) in the guitars of Antonio de Torres.   I got a message from someone in television wanting some more information about the Torres copy that I sent to the Classical Guitar Store in Philadelphia.  It turns out they were doing a show on Paul Reed Smith and my guitar has a cameo in the show.  I’ll let them tell you about Paul and how he got started whereas if you want to know more about me this is the place.  Seems the link has been broken sorry.

Enrique García 1913

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Enrique Garcia was the son of a guitar maker, Juan Garcia, but he is said to have served an apprenticeship with Manuel Ramirez, and worked for him until 1895.  García is also famous for his one disciple, Francisco Simplicio, during his time in Barcelona.  I was able to examine this guitar at the Music Museum in that city.  The guitar is in very good shape and shows, not surprisingly, some similarities with Torres work.  Below are some of the measurements if you are interested.  I may never make a copy of García but Rolf sometimes used a plantilla and bracing taken from a García he had examined.  I don’t remember the bracing being assymetric like this one however.  Once again the technique of the low-watt bulb inside the guitar shows us very clearly that he thought that the treble side would benefit from more braces. 

Instrument-making texts

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In October of last year I posted about a new guitar-making book that had been published in Spanish.  The book was never offered for sale because it was a government sponsored edition and very few were printed.  It is just as well actually because the new version is better, has more information and a different cover photo (something I am very happy to see).  One of the additions is the explanation of the traditional method of construction although the original text laying out José Ángel Chacon’s approach is still the basis of the book.

La guitarra en la luthería

Chacon developed his skills as a luthier in Italy in the seventies and is perhaps better known as a luthier of bowed instruments than as a guitar-maker.  For this reason I also mention his book on the construction of violins which is also available here.

El violín, la viola y el violonchelo en la luthería

 

 

David Russell

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David Russell played last week to a full house in the Arrayanes patio in the Alhambra.  If you know his playing and you have been to the Alhambra you can stop reading right now, you can imagine just how perfect the evening was.  Here is a photo and an article in from a Spanish newpaper.  Russell’s musicality was, as always, inspiring and his ease with the music and the audience rounded out the performance.  Some say he is the best player alive and that may well be true, I have lately been trying to encourage people in my circle of friends to go to guitar concerts and have not always been successful in getting a positive reaction but this was a great success.

I would like to publicly congratulate the director of the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance on his determination to give the guitar a place in the programming.  It has been years since we have seen guitarists of Russell’s calibre at this festival but this year we get the top classical player, the top flamenco player and the winner of the Andrés Segovia contest.

Now I hate to say anything negative about what might be the best guitar concert I have been to in Granada but I can’t help myself.  If I hadn’t seen David walk on stage with his guitar in hand I would have sworn that the guitar had a transducer pick-up under the saddle.  That was exactly the sound that it had!  I was not in the front row by any means so I was hearing the amplification mostly but I have never heard a guitar amplified through a microphone sound that way.   Another thing I noticed is that I heard that sound quality all the way through the concert.  I have been to guitar concerts where my first impression of the sound or volume of the guitar was not good but after 10 or 15 minutes you stop hearing the guitar or its defects.  This aural adjustment didn’t happen the other night and I don’t know why.   I am now curious to hear more of Damman’s guitars to see if they all sound like a guitar with a pick-up and how they sound without amplification.

Let me close by saying that the experience was excellent and that this concert proved what I often say (although it might not be very good for business), “The deciding factor for great guitar music is the player”, the qualities of the guitar may be important in the player’s inspiration and satisfaction but it is of little importance to the listener.