Historic Guitar-makers’ Get-together

One of the original Granada School makers has just retired and saw fit to invite us all for a meal so that we could celebreate his over 40 years of building guitars. All of the established makers were there and I was happy to meet a few that I don’t see very often.  To see everyone sitting down for a drink and talking about days gone by you never would have known that there had ever been problems between any of the makers. A few group photos were taken but I haven’t seen the results yet.  I hope to be able to publish one here. We had a great time and between those that sing and those that play we had music all afternoon. Rafael Moreno and José López Bellido have fine singing voices and Juan Garcia Fernandez plays as well as many professional players.

Women of the Classical Guitar

“This all began at Buffalo 1st edition of Women of the guitar. We were having a roundtable with Martha Masters, Gohar Vardanyan, myself and Joanne Castellani. Joanne were asking so many interesting questions and we came to the conclusion that they are many women playing the guitar and they needed to be more exposed. I hate to complain so I promised that I would raise a big list of all the women playing the guitar around the world. Here we are one year after that promise and the list keeps growing.”

Gaëlle Solal

Women of the Classical Guitar list

New Representation in France

I have been known to criticize dealers both in general and specifically but let the record show that I know how important they are and the better ones can be very good for the artisan’s visibility.  In general those who do what I do are not especially good at self-promotion.  The guitars might be fantastic but these days marketing, visibility and who is playing your guitars is sometimes more important than how they sound.  You might think that with cheap flights and no borders within European countries that it might be no more difficult to find clients in other countries than it is here.  Well, actually, there are an incredible number of guitarists who will only visit the guitar shops in their region and might never buy a guitar from the person who made it.  Therefore I am happy to report that my guitars are now available in France thanks to Jean-Marc de Beys at Guitarreria.eu  He travels around a lot especially within France and Belgium so getting a chance to try the guitars he carries shouldn’t be too hard.  He has just received a concert guitar of mine in spruce and indian which sounds sweet and strong.

Manuel Reyes

This week we lost another great of the guitar, Manuel Reyes of Córdoba. Recognized by most as the greatest builder of flamenco guitars, his talent and popularity was another stone in the monument to the traditional spanish guitar.  When I met him he seemed to be a very intuitive builder (as opposed to the scientific trends we see nowadays) and was very clear that his place was with the flamenco guitar.  He even went so far as to ask himself what he needed to change to make a great classical.  This conversation took place in Granada when he travelled here with his daughter Manuela to buy wood from my teacher Rolf Eichinger.  We all had lunch together that day and I I remember Manuela being very excited and passionate about the craft she was learning from her father.   I met Manuel once more in Córdoba on the occasion of the Festival in 2007 when we were both asked to exhibit a guitar for the hommage to Torrres.  If you search “Reyes” one of the first photos to come up is of Reyes with Romanillos and Andrés Dominguez and was taken at the opening of that exhibition.

I am sad to see him go and I wish all the best to his son Manuel and his daughter Manuela.