As you probably know, the Museum of Music in Barcelona has a great guitar collection including Fletas, Garcia, a few Torres, Pagés and many other spanish guitars. But what is a museum without programmed activities and the dissemination of knowledge? Here are currently planned activities at the Museum. Activities Among them is a series of talks offered by my friend Antonio Manjon, a guitar-maker 
from the area who is a frequent visitor to the Museum, especially to the guitar collection where we have studied many of the guitars.
Category Archives: Guitar making
Juan Miguel Carmona
Granada’s Palacio de Gomerez was host on the 19th of October to the presentation of the new 40th anniversary model by Juan Miguel Carmona. One of the founders of the “official” Escuela Granadina de Guitarreros, Juan Miguel has been a part of the Granada guitar-making and flamenco scene since his father (a french polisher of guitars) sent him to the workshop of Manuel Bellido at the tender age of 14. The guitar was the star of the evening although also present were guitar-makers Francisco Manuel Díaz and his son Francis, José López Bellido, Juan Manuel García as well as Dr. Erhard Hanen and supportive friends and family.
Two Invencibles
The two copies of Torres’ Invencible will soon be completed and ready for the varnishing process. You always get a feeling of how a guitar will sound from tapping on the top and back, feeling the weight and balance and from the flexibility of the top. These ones are giving me a great impression so I am very excited.
Non-tropical woods
Between the Leonardo Project and general worries about CITES, non-tropical woods are becoming more popular among guitar-makers. The next step is convincing the buyers that these guitar are just as good. Keep in mind that what makes the sound of a guitar is the maker’s skill and the way he chooses to work and that the only make or break component of the guitar is the top which is non-tropical anyway. What convinces me most about using non-tropical woods is the fact that period instrument makers have been doing it for centuries. Pear, cherry, oak, boxwood, walnut, maple and a hundred other nice hard and beautiful woods are used for great-sounding instruments.
I stocked up on plentiful cypress, maple and Indian rosewood many years ago and of course have the CITES papers for the rosewood but I think more people might be asking for something different. Here are my latest aquisitions: Thanks to guitar-maker Youri Soroka for the european walnut, the alder, the american walnut and the cherry. The very figured piece is olive wood from Spain cut by an amateur maker here.
Now Sold: Manuel de la Chica
This guitar, which is no longer for sale, belonged to an aficionado who really knew his guitars and had two Santos and a number of other great guitars. This family was host to Alirio Díaz, Regino Sainz de la Maza and other great guitarists when they were in Granada. These are the evenings of music that sparked the interest of a young Antonio Marín Montero. It is not surprising that this guitar was chosen among many as it is a great one.
Manuel de la Chica is often touted as the best maker that Granada has ever produced and while I don’t necessarily agree with that I do place him very high on the list. It should be stated, however, that some part of his later production was made up of guitars made by Antonio Marín and Manuel Bellido which de la Chica sold under his own label (according to Marín and Bellido). He may also have done that with Germán Pérez Barranco and Francisco Manuel Díaz as they were disciples of his. De la Chica was to a large degree self-taught but claims to have examined the guitars of Santos Hernández and based his early work on those instruments. Richard Bruné’s observations that de la Chica’s guitars were often given false labels so that they could be sold as Santos guitars lends support to this. I have seen a number of guitars by both makers and the similarities are striking. Those makers here in Granada who remember de la Chica hold him up as standard of organization, craftsmanship and inventiveness; the hallmarks of the artisan. For a bit more on the man who made this guitar see this newspaper article from 1947.This guitar was expertly restored by Manuel Bellido some years ago to deal with two cracks in the top and one in the back. The geometry of the guitar is healthy and I think will continue to be a very playable instrument for many years.
