WHOSE WORK WE STUDY (AND STEAL FROM)

The makers whose work we study

Every guitar that leaves the bench owes something to the makers below. We do not pretend otherwise. This is the short line of luthiers we measure ourselves against — the ones whose bracing, whose proportions, whose stubbornness we have copied, argued with, and occasionally improved upon.

Antonio de Torres

Almería · 1817–1892

The beginning. Antonio de Torres fixed the size, the fan bracing, and the voice of the modern classical guitar — and very nearly everything since has been a footnote. We keep one of his outlines pinned above the bench.

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Hermann Hauser I

Vienna · 1882–1952

Segovia's maker. Hauser took the Spanish tradition north to Vienna and Munich and gave it German precision without losing the warmth. The standard by which a concert classical is still judged.

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José Romanillos

Guijosa · b. 1932

Scholar as much as builder. Romanillos went back to Torres, measured everything, and then built guitars of remarkable clarity. His writing changed how a generation understood the instrument's history.

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Greg Smallman

Esperance · b. 1947

The radical. Smallman's lattice-braced tops gave players a guitar loud enough to fill a hall, and split the classical world doing it. We forgive him — and we have borrowed more than we like to say.

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Daniel Friederich

Paris · 1932–2020

The Parisian perfectionist. Friederich built slowly, numbered everything, and chased a singing, even tone across the whole fingerboard. A maker's maker, and a quiet argument for patience.

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ALSO ON THE DESK

Bookskept within arm's reach of the bench