Visit with José Romanillos

I know that I have probably mentioned it several times in this blog, but one of my biggest guitar building heroes is José Romanillos. While we were visiting friends in Spain and France over the last two weeks, I had the incredibly good fortune to be able to meet with him and his wife Marian Harris Winspear.

We saw the collection of instruments, as well as the workbench and tools of Santos Hernandez at the museum that they have curated in Sigüenza. We were invited to their home and workshop where he showed some of his tools, jigs and, perhaps most excitingly, his most recently completed guitar from roughly four years ago. It was incredibly beautiful. I was also able to show him one of my own guitars of which he was very generous to say nice things about.

They two of them have dedicated so much of their lives to the classical guitar and have put an insane amount of work and research into the biography of Antonio de Torres, the dictionary of Spanish musical instrument makers and the newest book on building a Spanish guitar. I was previously unaware, but Marian also does an invaluable amount of the editing, research and organizing, which I suppose makes sense when consider the scope of some of the projects they have undertaken.

I've included a handful of photos of the museum, shop and the city.

New Guitars for Koblenz International Guitar Festival

Strung up the two new guitars that I'll be showing at the Koblenz International Guitar Festival next week!

The first is a Classic Concert Model. Spruce and Indian Rosewood. largely inspired by Torres. Traditional sound. Lush, clear and lots of color.

The second is my Modern Concert Model. Spruce and Pau Ferro. Bold and balanced. The notes have a consistent, pure and clean decay.

New Videos

Since I've been waiting for shellac to dry, I've taken the opportunity to clean up the shop and record some new videos. My friend Miguel Mandelli stopped by yesterday to record some Bach and Villa-Lobos. Check em out!

New Guitars for Koblenz International Guitar Festival

First coats of shellac on a couple of new guitars that I'll be showing at the Koblenz International Guitar Festival next month. Spruce and pau ferro Modern Concert Model and Spruce and Indian rosewood Classic Concert Model.

International Guitar Week Graz

A few photos from the International Guitar Week at the Kunstuniversität Graz yesterday, where I had a small exhibition with my guitars. I had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful guitarists, attended an amazing masterclass with Paolo Pegoraro and heard two beautifully played student concerts: a program of 20th century music and transcriptions of Ravel and Debussy by the Tomasi-Musso Guitar Duo. I was also lucky enough to hear Petra Polackova play the entire Chaconne for me on two of my guitars!

Bindings, Spring Time and New Video

Over the past couple days, I've been doing bindings on four guitars! I didn't have a lot of time to take photos, but here are a few.

The weather turned yesterday rather suddenly and spring is officially here. Everything in our garden is in bloom and it's warm and sunny. The hedgehog family woke up and has been wandering around (unfortunately no photos) and the neighbor's turtle is out and about again too.

My friend Miguel Mandelli also stopped to record a video. He is a great Brazilian guitarist studying here in Graz. The piece is Tiento by Maurice Ohana. It's an old favorite of mine and a classic from the 20th century guitar repertoire. It's a little bombastic and dissonant at times, but a very cool piece and shows a lot of color. We'll be doing some more videos in the coming weeks of some more tonal pieces as well. :)

A Few New Photos

I've been quite busy as of late, so I haven't been posting so many photos. Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks. I upgraded my solera to make for easier changing of shapes (the prior solution with threaded inserts looked good, but was impractical as it turned out). Bent a bunch of sides on the iron. Reduced a large rectangular block of wood into hundreds of tiny triangular blocks of wood for tentallones. Mad a new rosette and braced some tops!

Making a Mess With Rosewood and Gluing Neck Blanks

Here are a few photos from the process of planing and scraping rosewood back and sides. Three backs and six sides make a lot of work and a lot shavings! Also a couple Spanish scarf joints and a V-joint for neck blanks.

New Rosettes and Planing Pau Ferro for Sides

Here are some photos through some of the steps of making new rosettes. These are all my own  various takes on the Torres FE19 and FE09.

A quick time-lapse video of me planing Pau Ferro sides, also known as Bolivian rosewood or Brazilian ironwood. It is has a good density and hardness that is similar to Indian rosewood. The grain structure is more interlocked like mahogany though which makes a bit trickier to plane. One needs a sharp blade and some care to minimize tear-out. The up-side is that the pores are virtually non-existent.

Vinyl & Music Festival Vienna

Spent the weekend in Vienna showing guitars at the Vinyl and Music Festival. I usually only show at classical guitar festivals, so it was nice to get out of my nerd bubble for a bit and see a whole other nerd bubble! I met a lot of very nice people, played some cool instruments and, surprisingly, ended up making a few new classical guitar contacts. I also found a pretty cool Leo Brouwer record from 1978.