I have a good excuse for writing such a short post this week. 
Just a reminder: Everything with a sharp edge can be dangerous if your attention strays. The cut isn’t so bad actually but enough thic
kness of skin came off that it will be awhile healing. Meanwhile here is a shot of the bird’s-eye which came as promised from Rumania and some music played on a Rosewood Torres copy. The guitarist and soundman is Evaristo Valentí.
Category Archives: Guitar making
Lobet’s Torres
One of the most talked-about Torres guitars is the guitar which Llobet owned and played for a part of his career. This guitar has been recorded and copied, examined and published and, quite recently, played in concert. It was difficult to examine because of the tornavoz but we did get some very good information. This badly shot video shows some of the tools we used to take measurements of the different guitars at the Barcelona museum.
(I need to learn to choose between handheld shots or tripod shots but never drag the tripod around the way I did here) Most of the wooden tools were made by my neighbour Thomas Holt (also a guitar maker).
One of the pictures show a method for reading the original dome of the top. The straightedge is placed on the edge of the guitar in an attempt to follow the angle which the lining was planed at, or the peones (individual blocks) in other cases,were glued at. A measurement is taken at the other side and that straightedge will be tangent to the curve that the guitar was originally made with. The information in that angle with respect to the theoretical plane of the top is enough to give us the curve. This is something that Rolf Eichinger used to do when examining historical instruments. Here is Javier Riba´s first contact with this instrument. Soundclip
First Arias
I finally finished the Vicente Arias copy! Since I wasn’t making this guitar for anyone in particular it kept getting pushed back by the guitars people had ordered. Here you have a video and some photos of it “in the white” The sound changes once it is varnished but it is a very slight and predictable change and the builders among you will hear the lack of varnish. Javier Riba, who will be opening the Cordoba Guitar Festival this year, came by and played a little Sor for us, study no. 12 op. 6. If you remember, he owns the original and let me do an extensive examination of it. When you make a copy you are usually trying for both an aesthetic and an acoustic match but the aesthetics are usually easier than the acoustics. In this case I was very pleased to hear Javier say that the feel of the guitar is very similar to the original and the sweetness of the tone is there too. The video was made with an audio recorder which also does video but it seems that for a really good audio take it needs to be quite close. Thanks to Toni Valls and Carlos Juan Busquiel for the advice on finding a recorder and on making the recording itself.
A look inside Torres’ paper mache guitar
Here is a little more from my trip to the Museum in Barcelona. Paul Poletti had the time to lend us a hand with examining one of the guitars. He was working on a visualization system for small, dark spaces and we got to try it out.
Carles Trepat
Carles Trepat is perhaps the most interesting guitarist in Spain right now. His musicality and expression is second to none and his work in composing and arranging is bringing new repertory to our beloved instrument. Not only do I enjoy his playing but I am also a beneficiary of his generosity. As you might know I make a replica of the Torres that he owns and plays. He allowed me to examine it a number of times and then agreed to put the first finished copy through its paces and compare it side by side to the original. So about 30 Torres copies later I see that time as a turning point in my career.
Trepat gave a concert last night here in Granada and it was great on every level. Bach, Llobet’s catalan folksongs and Trepat’s own arrangements of Manuel Quiroga. He has been investigating the life and music of Padre Basilio (to whom we attribute the addition of the sixth string on the guitar) and played two pieces which he recently unearthed. One of his strengths (or weaknesses depending on the type of concert-goer you are) is how seriously he takes the music. From the moment he sat down to play right up to the end, not a word, not a drink of water, nothing. All his energy was focussed on expressing himself musically. My wife remarked on the contrast with Zoran Dukic whom we saw in January and who reaches out to the audience and talked about each piece. However, she enjoyed Trepat’s concert as much or more than Dukic’s.
Trepat is also known for the guitars he plays, he has the Torres I mentioned, the Pagés you see in the video, a Santos Hernandez, an Antonio Marin I have seen him play with an orchestra and last night he was playing on a Romanillos. My experience with Romanillos guitars is very limited but this was much better than the last one I heard, an excellent instrument.
Here is an interview with Trepat, in spanish and a bit more information about him this time in English.