estebanana -> RE: Santos Hernandis (Feb. 10 2011 8:19:56)
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The Flamenco Guitar by David George. As much as David George's interview with Reyes is a gem, on the history of the guitar he is an unreliable narrator. The book is poorly researched and written as far as the guitars origins and history. The part about the Santos forgery comes in because Reyes tells a story about a guy who comes to his shop with a guitar Reyes himself had build a few years earlier. The guy who is a crook says to Reyes, you make a great guitar in the style of Santos, let me put some dirty varnish on it and you fix a few things here and there and I will paste in Santos label I made and sell it as a original Santos. We'll make lots of money which I will cut you in on. Reyes kicks him out of his shop and says never come back. The guy comes back a few days later and says the same thing, Reyes physically ejects the guy from his shop and then never sees him again. Reyes played it by being honest and not making money off of some other makers name. The connection between Santos and Reyes is that Reyes, like a lot of good flamenco guitar makers, began with a study and admiration for Santos. Reyes worked to understand Santos' ideas and methods. However in terms of construction practice details and materials they each used, Reyes and Santos are different. Early Reyes guitars from the 1960's had a different structural and materials vocabulary than the Santos guitars built forty years earlier in the 1920's and 1930's. The devil is in the details. Details like Reyes did not use the beech wood linings that Santos often used. Reyes shaped his linings differently than Santos and his hand is lighter than Santos' in the work. Reyes venerated Santos, but the materials he had and his choices for transitions between neck and head stock, width of tuner slots etc. were different from Santos. He did not appear to be in the habit of making bench copies, but wanted to assimilate the lessons and sonic attributes of Santos into his own style. Aesthetically Reyes and Santos are a bit similar, but different enough to see an independent style and materials choice on Reyes' part.
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