I promised photos of this retirement party that José López Bellido organized so here are a few. It was very well-attended and the food and the wine was great. I had a chance to chat with most everyone there but particularily enjoyed hearing about the old times from these two giants:
I think everyone knows that when Manuel Bellido left Eduardo Ferrer’s shop he set up with Antonio Marín and started making history.
My first love is building guitars but if you read this blog you will know that the history of the guitar and guitar-makers is part of that passion. Furthermore I have a special interest in the evolution of the Granada school and its influence on the rest of the world. David Ganz writes about this particular subject in the book “The Granada School of Guitar-makers” and was asked to do so precisely because of his interest and knowledge of the material. A week or so ago he sent me this note: “I just discovered the attached advertisement in the back of the Fall 1972 issue of Guitar Review magazine out of New York.”
I had heard that guitars from Granada “arrived” a bit later in the decade although we know that some musicians had travelled to Granada and purchased instruments here. I printed the image above and went down the street to see Antonio Marín and his nephew José Plazuelo to ask them about F. Alex Guzmán. They remembered two partners, both named Alex, and they mentioned in passing that Antonio had built guitars for both Morales and de la Chica. I love the prices; now you would pay 3000 to 15,000 USD at today’s exchange rate. This remains only publicity but I persnally think that most of what it says was true and continues to be true today.
The link to this video was incorrect in a post some time ago.
Building guitars is greatly satisfying and can be the perfect job or the perfect hobby. It is, however, rare that a maker is happy to churn out exactly the same thing time after time. Some expand into bowed instruments, others into period instruments and some just experiment and improve within the very constrained and limited classical guitar aesthetic. Since my beginnings I have been interested in the 19th century and how we got to the guitar we make today. My first copy was Antonio de Lorca and since then I have come across a number of instruments which have been so great or so unusual that I just had to make copies: Torres, Vicente Arias, Santos Hernández, Marcelo Barbero and Rolf Eichinger . The success of some of these copies, especially the Torres and the Santos, has brought me a reputation for this sort of work.
The current owners of La Invencible made by Antonio de Torres have asked me to make a new model which will be a copy of this great guitar. Please visit the website they have created in order to share this marvel of Torres’ work. Last month I travelled to Barcelona to photograph and measure every detail of this instrument. Aside from belonging to Federico Cano and being one of the higher quality instruments it is a fantastic-sounding guitar. I took photos and videos of the inside and outside and can safely say that the top is original, contrary to what a few jealous guitar-sellers have maintained. One of the defining features of this guitar is the open transverse bar below the soundhole. T
his allows some of the fan braces to extend up alongside the soundhole. Other relevant features include the minimal thicknesses of the top and sides and the typical seven strut configuración with two extra struts in a V on the outside of the fan. Thank you so much Jordi and Carlos for the opportunity to study this wonderful guitar.
The conservatory of Santiago de Compostela presents Marcos Socias in concert april 18 20:15 and masterclass 19 and 20 from 10:00 to 20:00. Register at this link.