Richard Jernigan -> RE: Madera mala for a short sustain guitar? (Apr. 15 2019 13:23:38)
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Kevin Aram gave a talk to the Guild of American Luthiers about Bream's Romanillos #501. It was published in the Guild's Journal. Aram interviewed Romanillos. Romanillos said he built #501 as a trial run for the copy of Sergio Abreu's Hauser. Abreu and his brother Eduardo performed as a duo, and they wanted another instrument like the Hauser. When the guitar was complete, Romanillos took it to Bream for his comments. Bream was in the kitchen of his house at Semley, talking to his agent. Bream said is was a nice guitar, "perhaps a little quiet." Romanillos said he was a little ashamed of the guitar, and put it to one side. A few months later Bream and John Williams visited Romanillos at his workshop in Fontmell Magna. Williams wanted the tuning machines replaced on his Fleta. #501 was hanging on the wall of the workshop. While Romanillos worked, Bream took it down and played. Williams commented that he sounded very good on that guitar. Bream asked to buy it. Romanillos immediately agreed. Romanillos said to Aram that he had never before told anyone that the guitar was already sold to someone else. He had to call the previous customer to persuade him to take a later guitar. Romanillos's numbering system might be a bit confusing. #501 was not the 501st instrument he built. Rather it is the first of the fifth design series. Mine, which just precedes #501 is #473, the 73rd of the fourth series, "modeled on" a 1950 Hauser. I vaguely recollect that #501 was not labeled as such until some time after Bream had begun to use it. I had a close look at #501 when Bream came to Austin for a concert. It looked like it had been "rode hard and put up wet," as we say in Texas. I saw and heard it in his hotel room, at the concert, and in a fair sized room in a private house. After it cracked, the back was replaced by Hermann Hauser II, since it was considered that he had a better stock of wood. A little unusually for Romanillos, #501 has Brazilian rosewood back and sides. They say that the 1940 Hauser lent to Bream by Rose Augustine received similar treatment. Segovia used to stay with the Augustines when he was in New York. The Hauser was made for him and sent to the Augustines. Segovia kept using the 1937. After he passed away, Mrs. Augustine lent the 1940 guitar to Bream. Rose Augustine also lent a guitar to Alice Artzt. On the cover of an LP that Artzt recorded with it, the guitar was said to be by Antonio de Torres. Later examination by Richard Brune showed that this was not the case. All the same, it sounded quite good in the hands of Ms. Artzt. I'm reminded of what Brune said about Santos Hernandez: "Of the 400 or so instruments he made during his career, probably no more than a thousand survive." Manuel Ramirez was one of the Torres counterfeiters, though I don't believe Augustine's guitar was one of his. Ramirez made a few Torres copies, put his own labels in them. then pasted fake Torres labels over them. The leading guitarists, both classical and flamenco, hung out at Ramirez's shop. Trying the fake Torres and some of Ramirez's other guitars all agreed that the Torres were the best. Ramirez then removed the fake labels and showed his own underneath. RNJ
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