Antonio Torres 1888 SE122

Every so often a guitar turns up in the workshop that you can't get out of your head. This guitar by Antonio Torres is one of those guitars.

Until recently, this guitar was simply not known about and lay in storage in the house of its owner. It is a large bodied, seven fan strut guitar, with the back made of rosewood and mahogany, and it carries many of the most iconic features of this great maker's work, such as the 3-lobed headstock and the herringbone inlay in the rosette. Although it has playing wear and humidity cracks, it is in virtually untouched condition which is truly remarkable. So many Torres guitars have inevitably been altered or restored, but with this guitar you see the work of Torres; the doming on the front, the exquisite shaping of the head and even the polish - all original and as Torres left it.

One extraordinary feature of this guitar is the grain orientation on the front as it is 3 degrees off centre. This is startling and almost unnerving at first glance. It is, however, almost symbolic of this makers approach to his craft and illustrates his insistence on using the timber available to him in the best possible way.
Startling and unnerving maybe but not unique in Torres work; a Torres guitar owned by Tarrega, SE114 (also from 1888)  exhibits skewed grain, as does SE99.

This guitar is due to be auctioned at Bromptons in London on October 27th, along with other fine guitars. I will write about this instrument in much more detail in a future post.

Guitar making and aerodynamics

I can't be the only guitar maker to have started out by making model aeroplanes as a kid. I loved making anything really so to have ended up spending my working life in my own workshop creating things is no great surprise. Model aircraft still creep into the workshop sometimes. last summer my 8 year old son and I spent happy hours building balsa catapult gliders and then spent more happy hours chasing them round the local park.

I made the plane pictured above a couple of months back. It's a Dart Kitten for those of you who are interested; a 1930s design. It is still waiting for its prop and rubber motor but test glide flights look good. It's free flight and is made as light as possible so I selected the lightest balsa I could find; then thinned it down so that you could see light through it. It weighs 9 grams; a classical guitar low E strings weighs about 5 grams.....

It was whilst I was weighing sheet balsa that I realised again the connection with guitar making. When I select guitar tops I will always take weight into consideration, the same with strutwood, and bridge material.When you build an aircraft/guitar it needs to look good but it has to fly/play as well. (I was telling all this to one of my students recently who pointed out that at least guitars don't get stuck up trees.)

The aeroplane is sitting on the back of a cypress Torres inspired guitar which I have recently finished and weighed just over 1100 grams. The plane has yet to fly but the guitar has gone and is faraway now, and singing like a bird....

Vincente Arias

This guitar came in with little warning but rarely am I so enamoured with a guitar as with this one. Vincente Arias was working in Spain in the last part of the the 19th century and into the first decade of the 20th. They are rare finds indeed and this one is in fantastic original condition, even down to the brass frets. The rosewood is prime Brazilian and I love the polish on the soundboard - so fine and clear. Built so lightly it seems to tremble as you pick it up and work on it.
I have not had to do much to this instrument. The bridge had lifted over time and so was carefully removed, cleaned and then re-glued with hot hide glue. At some point the guitar had been dropped and this had put a large split in the bass rib. This has now been cleaned and glued. You can see some damage to the tentelones and glue from some previous repairs.


Simple, but very beautiful to the eye and that, as it transpires, is how it sounds too. Last night I returned it to Jim and had the pleasure of hearing accomplished guitarist, Adrian Rius, play this guitar. Adrian was returning FE 18 after the Tarrega exhibition in Spain, so Jim and Ging provided a fabulous evening of food and music. Nice to see Pablo Requena there too. Not only is Pablo a fine guitar maker but he can sing as well! Great stuff. And so the evening ended with Adrian playing 2 Torres guitars and the Arias. The guitars sounded better than ever and the playing was delicate and haunting. I left clutching the remains of a bottle of 1970 Fonseca's port (thank you Jim) and with Tarrega and Torres (and Arias) ringing in my ears.