Historical Guitars

April 04th, 2013

4/4/2013

My copy of the small Torres 1863 Guitar.With a small body size and string length of near 63 cm's this charming instrument is suited to the 19th century repertoire of Sor right through to the works of Tarrega. It has a bass response that is quite remarkable for it's size.
Although the original instrument had body woods of pear and mahogany I used English cherry, a wood of similar density and should go some way to preserve the tonality of the Torres instrument.
I've managed to incorporate some of the two shades of dyed 'Torres green' veneer into the rosette. The other lines in the rosette consist of contrasting walnut and maple.

Rob Mackillop playing Tarrega on the Torres 1863 copy:

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The Torres Green

3/27/2013

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Recently I have been experimenting with the use of natural dyes. The combinations of wood, dyes and mordants can give countless colours along with various shades of those colours. According to Romanillos Torres used two types of green. One made by using ferrous sulphate (copperas) on sycamore and another type of green by using the same solution on satinwood.

From left to right is the ferrous sulphate, barberry bark, Brazilwood chips and logwood chips.
The first veneer sample (far left) is copperas on maple/sycamore.This is also the famous 'harewood' used by furniture and marquetry makers in the 17 th century and after. In reality it appears to have a tinge of green but the silvery grey colour predominates. If a sample of sycamore that has a natural base colour of yellow/cream is used it seems to push the resultant colour further towards a green. Very white maple or holly finishes a blue grey.
The next sample is copperas but this time used on dogame (SA boxwood). That gives a dark green, perhaps a little more vibrant than suggested in the photo.
Next on is pear wood in copperas followed by walnut. The strong tannin content of walnut reacts with the copperas to produce a black. Add logwood chips to the solution and the both the pear and walnut will give a stronger black. Dyeing pear black in logwood chips and ferrous sulphate was supposedly the method that Stradivari used to obtain the black of his violin purflings.
It is the two shades of green that I will use in the rosette of my 1863 Torres copy. Hopefully the effect will be similar to the green that Torres used on some of his rosettes.

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Torres 1863

3/21/2013

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLpEHg1wShk

This rather plainly adorned but beautifully proportioned instrument made by Antonio Torres has some interesting features. The Lute style bridge lends itself to a greater 'action' and intonation adjustment than first appearances suggest. By virtue of the way in which the strings are tied a height adjustment of 3 mm's or more can be achieved. That transfers to an action change of at least 1.5 mm's at fret 12. Going from say a low 2.5 mm's on the high 'E' to a very high 4 mm's can be achieved simply by releasing a little string tension and adjusting the position of the string on the Bridge. Again Intonation adjustment is quickly altered by moving the loop of the string further away from the Bridge tie block.
In some ways the Torres Guitar has some similarities to the Vihuela. Not only in the type of Bridge but in the lack of any form of bracing past the lower harmonic bar. The absence of any bracing seems rather odd to see on a 19 th century Guitar where the use of ladder and fan bracing was well established. It also seems incredible that such a soundboard can withstand the string tension. With it's 11 strings the combined string tension found on the Vihuela can easily exceed 30 K, not that dissimilar to the probable tension placed on the soundboard of the Torres Guitar. The Vihuela resists the string tension quite adequately and there is no reason to think that the Torres Guitar will behave any different, especially considering it's low soundboard aggregate.

Despite the Torres instrument being made of modest materials, a Spartan approach in terms of ornamentation and prompt methods in construction there is no doubt that such an instrument can sound as fine as lavishly adorned Guitars. Although Richard Brune is playing Flamenco on the small Torres there is no reason to believe that Flamenco was the intended style of music for this Guitar. It can easily be considered to have a firm footing in the Romantic Guitar style of a slightly earlier period. Indeed String length and the actual soundboard aggregate is very similar to that found on French Romantic Guitars.

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A 19 th Century 'Hybrid' Guitar.

10/10/2012

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An experimental Guitar in which I have incorporated elements from the well known 19th century Guitar makers. The basic body plantilla is that of the 'Fecit' Panormo model. Instead of the usual ladder or Panormo bracing I decided to go with a fan bracing in keeping with Torres. I have also thrown in some stylistic features of the Lacote French school. I suspect (hope!) that the outcome will be an aesthetically attractive instrument with a more typical 19 th century Spanish tonality. Perhaps with the mellower, sweet sound that is a hallmark of that genre.
The soundboard is of European Spruce, the Back/Sides of a rather attractive English Cherry. Given the density of Cherry wood I suspect that it will not be unlike that of the more familiar Maple. Fretboard will be of a very Black (environmentally friendly) 'Bog Oak' - no doubt submerged for 5,000 years or so!
More pictures to follow.

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April 04th, 2013

The Torres Green

Torres 1863

A 19 th Century 'Hybrid' Guitar.

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