On March 20 I travelled to Madrid to make a presentation about Santos Hernández the great guitar-maker. I was invited thanks to the study I made of his 1924 guitar which had belonged to Andrés Segovia. That was back in 2015 and was published in Roseta magazine. Below is the poster for the event and as you can see Javier Somoza, Joan Pellisa and Cristina Bordás also participated. Javier knows exactly how to make that guitar sound great and told us a little about Andrés Segovia and his intentions in donating different guitars to various museums. Joan has been studying the tools and jigs that are conserved from Santos’ workshop and has reached some interesting conclusions about how Santos worked and why. As for Cristina’s presentation I was very interested in her analysis of “Cultura Material” which is something I was not familiar with.

The next day I was able to visit the Historical Museum of Madrid and see the two guitars they have on display there, Juan Moreno and Hijos de González. Thanks Raquel. And thank you to Inmaculada Seldas from the Musical Library and the organizers of Symphonos Festival. I also visited Yunah Park on the same trip. I have known her for years and greatly respect her work but I had never managed to see her workshop, a great pleasure.

Many years ago I decided that I would copy a particular Simplicio rosette. Above you can see the two options that I had: a light-coloured background or a dark-coloured one. I tend to avoid areas of light-coloured mosaic because the lines between the pieces are more visible. I now have material prepared for 20 or 30 rosettes with a dark background but last week I started having doubts as it looked a bit too dark. However, when I started planing a newly installed rosette this image led to my immediate reconciliation with the design.

I was very happy to have a visit from Korea today. Song Ou and Honam Ji came to pick up a guitar and we had lunch together. Honam has been studying in Germany and is playing better than ever.

Si os apetece verlos hay otra oportunidad este domingo en Salobreña. El concierto en Salobreña será el 25 de febrero a las 17:30 horas en el Auditorio, con una entrada de 10 euros y cuenta con el apoyo del Ayuntamiento de Salobreña. Esta última información de https://www.radiosalobrena.com/el-concierto-de-guitarra-serenata-espanola-cierra-este-domingo-la-programacion-cultural-de-febrero/

Anoche, en “Un Lugar en Granada” vimos a un dúo fantastico de la ciudad de la luz. Son muy jovenes pero ya con muchas tablas. Disfrutamos de transcripciones de obras para piano sobre todo, algunos hechos por ellos mismos. Fue un placer escuchar lo bien que se complementan no solo los artistas sino una guitarra de Antonio Marín y una de 1953 de Marcelo Barbero. Especialmente interesante son las canciones de Carlos Guastavino.

This is my friend Victor Bravo, guitarist and guitar teacher with the brand new Francisco Simplicio copy. He brought his Rolf Eichinger guitar which need a bit of fret work. It is always nice to see the master’s work after all this time. I still find his instruments wonderfully made.

As for the Simplicio, I am very pleased with the sound and the feel of the guitar and it goes without saying that the design is unique and striking. I have already decided to make another starting now and this one will be made outside of my order schedule so it will be available.