New Torres/Romanillos Style Guitar

Just finished up this guitar for the wonderfully expressive and articulate guitarist Jan Depreter and I am very please with how it turned out. It is a Torres/Romanillos style instrument. It’s primarily inspired by the Torres SE114, as well as a 1973 and 2012 Romanillos. It has a very typical deep F# body resonance, a nice springy attack above the soundhole, but a clear presence, definition and complexity when playing over the rosette and plenty of colors on both sides of the spectrum.

I’ll be showing this guitar as well as another one of my more modern instruments at the Antwerp Guitar Festival next week. Hope to see you there.

Special thanks to Rob and David Rodgers for being super nice and making these beautiful tuners on a tight schedule!

  • European spruce top

  • Indian rosewood/Santos rosewood back and sides

  • Spanish cedar neck with V-joint

  • Ebony fingerboard

  • Rodgers L111 tuners with nickel-silver plates and mother of pearl buttons

  • 650mm scale length

  • 52mm nut width

  • 43mm string spacing at nut

  • 58mm string spacing at saddle

  • 12 hole tie block

Guitar for Antwerp Guitar Festival

Recently put the first coats of shellac on this guitar that I’ll be bringing to the Antwerp Guitar Festival in November. I decided to do something inspired by a José Romanillos guitar that I played this summer while visiting him and his wife Marian. It is by no means a copy, but includes many similar motifs and marquetry. I made lozenge motif for the head plate and bridge tie-block, the iconic arches rosette and a fully mitered herringbone purfling around the back and sides of the guitar. It’s a four piece Indian and Santos rosewood back. In terms of construction, it’s based more on a straight-forward Torres design and thus is closer to a ‘73 Romanillos guitar that I played two summers ago than the 2012 guitar that inspired the aesthetics. Looking forward to getting this thing strung up!

Custom Spruce and Santos Rosewood Guitar

I recently finished up a custom project with a client and I’m very happy with how it turned out. It’s a modified version of my Modern Concert Model. We loosened it up just a bit more than usual to give it a fast and lively attack with big basses and warmer trebles. We decided on this beautiful four piece back and chose from various combinations of woods for the rosette, purflings, bindings and head plate. Spruce top, Santos rosewood back and sides, nickel silver Alessi tuners with ebony buttons. custom rosette inspired by the 1888 Torres (SE114) owned by Francisco Tarrega.

Nice words from Jan Depreter

The wonderfully expressive and colorful Belgian guitarist Jan Depreter recently wrote some very kind words about one of my guitars. It's very flattering to see my guitar sitting along side his beautiful 2015 Fritz Ober at the latest recording session. He was recording on the Ober, but apparently brought mine along to show off to his colleagues! :)

"This year Christmas comes early for one of my lucky students! In the Austrian Alps, I met young American guitarist luthier Michael Cadiz whose deep-tuned FE09 Torres/Hauser guitar impressed me deeply. It arrived safe and well in Antwerp. Time to try some Lobos Etudes for tonight! 🎶"

New Marquetry and a Couple Short Videos

Working on a new custom Romanillos inspired guitar. Decided to include one of his frequently used motifs, the lozenge, which he very documents in his book about Antonio de Torres. Got a little help gluing things together from the new apprentice during breakfast yesterday.

In other news, I recorded a couple short demo videos before shipping guitars out to Belgium and Germany last week. They are roughly one-minute excerpts originally made with the instagram time limit in mind, but also admittedly short because I'm only playing until I make a mistake and then fade out... :)

The Passing of Robert Ruck

Many of you are probably aware by now that the great guitar maker Robert Ruck passed away recently. I just wanted to write a short post about him and my experience meeting him because it was such an important and meaningful time for me. He was one of the most knowledgeable, innovative and prolific guitar builders of our time. He was also an extremely generous and engaging person.

I met Robert years ago at the Northwest Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibit. I wasn’t aware that he would be there and his name was so iconic at that point that it seemed bizarre to just walk by Robert Ruck standing alone at his table. I felt like I had no business talking to him, but he started up a conversation and let me play his guitars. He eventually invited me and one other guitar builder to stay with him and his wife in Eugene, OR for several days. He methodically showed us his shop, building process and methods. He explained his approach at length and showed us tips, tricks, tools and jigs; he was surprisingly open about everything. His wife cooked for us. We drank wine and all stayed up late talking about music and life in general. I stayed in a room with a closet packed full of guitars and I was allowed to play them all and take photos. He wouldn’t accept any payment and he sent me home with a pile of wood. I still have trouble believing it.

He will be greatly missed, but as many have already rightly said, he will surely be remembered and has left behind a remarkable legacy and body of work.

Catching Up

Things have been quite busy lately and I'm just catching up with some photos. Here are a couple projects that I'm working on at the moment. A beautiful pau ferro back and sides set. A Torres SE114 style rosette and a Romanillos arches rosette.

Seckau Guitar Festival

Spent a couple of hours last weekend at the annual Seckau Guitar Festival at Seckau Abbey. A very nice festival organized by Johann and Florian Palier. It was a wonderful venue, atmosphere and closing concert of the festival participants. Lots of great young guitarists.

It was also a real treat to hear one of my newly discovered favorite guitarists Jan Depreter play through several pieces on my guitars (La Maja de Goya, Fuga BWV1001, Villa-Lobos Mazurka among others...). His playing is so clear and full of color and articulation; it was really something to hear live.

"Today I tried the guitars by American-Austrian guitarmaker Michael Cadiz, whose deep-tuned Torres/Hauser-inspired instrument I thought was surprisingly versatile and responsive with generous basses and a particularly authentic “Hauser” sound on the 2nd string"