One might think that these two makers – the 19th century maker of the first recognizably modern guitar and the most famous maker of the 20th century – made very similar instruments and in general that would be correct.  Both made lightly-built, responsive and beautiful guitars and in general used the integral neck and fan bracing of some description.  However, both makers experimented extensively, Torres with body shape and tornavoz while Santos used many different fan and transverse bar layouts.

I am making one of my very much in demand Torres copies right now alongside a Santos copy which has also proven to be quite successful.  The depth measurements of a guitar body affect the air volume and hence the resonant frequencies, it can make the guitar more or less comfortable for the guitarist to hold and play and of course it changes the aesthetics. This picture shows just what a difference in depth there is between these two models. There are a few other differences as well, the Santos is made with thinner top and sides and the lower transverse bar is placed diagonally.  I had never experimented with that configuration before but I am liking the results.

Alí Arango

Martes 28 junio – 22.00h

Corral del Carbón

Cañizares

Martes 21 junio – 22.30h

Patio de los Arrayanes

Click on the image above for a complete list of all activities.

I have always made a high proportion of 640 instruments as they sound great and the earlier instruments have encouraged guitarists to order one.  630 has not been so popular but recently I have had a few people asking and seen some discussions online about where to get a 630 guitar.  It seems there is a scarcity of quality short-scale instruments and players are forced to buy mass-produced products that are often made in China under an American name.  Ordering a short-scale from a maker one trusts should be an obvious option but for some reason guitarists are nervous about how it will turn out.

I have a smaller mold made by my teacher for short-scale guitars that I have never used and so I thought that I would make a 630 scale and see if there is a serious market.  The top is very nice and stiff and the wood is special as I decided not to use Indian rosewood for this one.

I don’t have this blog open to comments because I am sure I wouldn’t find the time to approve them before they go up (you know, spam). However, I do get some feedback by email and facebook, here are two messages about the last post.  I’ll have to take more care to get my information first-hand in the future.  Here is the webpage for the Romanillos museum.

Spain: birth-place of Andrés Segovia, Paco de Lucia,  Antonio de Torres, Santos Hernández, Francisco Tárrega, Fernando Sor, y el flamenco. If any country should have a national museum of the guitar, Spain is it.  True, there are a number of private collections but the only decent public collection of guitars is in the Museu de la Musica de Barcelona along with musical instruments and documents of all descriptions. The Antonio de Torres museum in Almeria doesn’t have many instruments of its own and so depends on loans from private collectors. I don’t think they have a single Torres. La Casa de la Guitarra en Sevilla is a private “museum” which has flamenco shows and a shop which buys and sells guitars.  Ronda Guitar House has a collection of many different kinds of instruments and offers courses and concerts.  The Romanillos collection is at: Centro de la Vihuela de Mano y La Guitarra Española “José Luis Romanillos”  in Sigüenza. Under the present government the Museum is open every day; in the morning 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. & in the afternoon from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

It is beginning to look as though no one in government is going to put up the money to fund a full-fledged guitar museum in this country so we have to look at other alternatives.  The MIMMA (Museo Interactivo de la Música) in Málaga is a model we might look to for a guitar museum.  The MIMMA is an interactive museum of music, musical instruments and experiments so it is much more hands-on and child-friendly but the model of how it came about is useful.

The collection is private but the beautiful, recently refurbished building has been provided by the town council of Málaga. In one newspaper article the projected cost of the purchase and renovation of the building was 3 million Euros. Couldn’t Madrid or Granada as centres of guitar-making, Córdoba as the location of the most important guitar festival in world or the central government create a museum?  Marcelino López Nieto has famously said that he will donate his collection (one of the best in Spain) to a museum in Madrid on the condition that it stays in Madrid.  What are you waiting for, Madrid?  Another of the great collections in Spain was sold off piecemeal between 1990 and 2000 mostly to Japanese collectors.  Is Spain’s cultural heritage only important to those outside Spain?  A sad state of affairs indeed.

Japan has a guitar museum, El Palacio de la Guitarra, with a great collection of instruments, many of which belonged to the Granada guitarrist and teacher Manuel Cano. What about Spain?