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Flamenco
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| My work as a restorer has given me first-hand experience of some wonderful flamenco guitars, by great makers like Santos-Hernandez, Domingo Esteso, Manuel Reyes and Gerundino. Through this experience I have formed an understanding of the way to build a good flamenco guitar. Originally I absorbed the fundamental elements of flamenco guitar making when I shared a workshop with Stephen Hill in 1995/6. However, I didn't make a flamenco guitar until 1998. During this time I listened to alot of flamenco guitarists playing different styles of instrument and gradually formulated the kind of sound that I wanted to produce. I wanted to make an "all-round" flamenco guitar , one capable of expressing both pathos and happiness; light and dark; airyness and earthiness; one which would possess the qualities necessary for both percussive and melodic work.
My next flamenco project will be to build a copy of a 1929 Santos-Hernandez guitar which I recently restored. This guitar had so much guts in it, I could hardly believe it. |
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This Cypress/spruce flamenco guitar was built in 2004. It is built lightly, along traditional lines. The top is supported by a 6-fan assymmetric system of my own design. It is a lovely flamenco instrument with a beautiful warm, crisp, dry sound. The tone is very balanaced and even throughout. Excellent separation of the string voices and well focused notes make for effortless playing. The left hand is easy, the response for the right hand is taut, but the string feel is flexible. It has strong percussive qualities when required and a "growling bass", responding very well to rasqueado playing. The trebles, clear & incisive, have a musicality that is excellent for melodic work. This is a guitar which loves to be played! Scale-length 655mm. Neck-width at nut 52mm, at 12th fret 61mm.
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In the making of the guitar pictured I have used the traditional materials for the flamenco guitar. Cypress for the back and sides, European Spruce for the top, cedrela and ebony for the neck and fingerboard, and Brazilian rosewood for the bridge and head facing. Enjoying flamenco music and playing a little, it is a real pleasure to build a flamenco instrument where the requirements are so different from that of a classical guitar. | |
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The plantilla no. 12 is a further evolution of an earlier shape (07) that was originally inspired by a 1932 Domingo Esteso guitar. Plantilla dimensions. This is a guitar which I kept to play myself for a few years, but I've now sold it on.
As with all my guitars, the rosette and other inlays are designed and made by me. |
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