stephen hill -> RE: My visit to Manuel Reyes (Jul. 10 2007 18:01:01)
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Thanks everyone for the posts, very kind! Yes, it must seem strange to have a commision to build a guitar that is perhaps not my concept but the player who commissioned the guitar asked me if I would be offended to make this guitar,, in the style of Reyes. I was actually flattered that he felt I could input in this way into my guitars. It is not my style to make copies but to incorporate into this guitar some of the feeling and respect I have for Manuel Reyes as he was one of my biggest influences in my early days of making and it is in a sense a privilage to make this guitar. Yes, style and feeling is what we discussed, not details of thicknessing,etc.. I know a lot of this already having worked on many Reyes's when I worked in the uk. In a sense I am alining my work to his, but using my own judgements as to where I go with the details. The plantilla , body depths and head will be his, and the strutting layout is very similar to my own, but I will be using all my instincts to take my own decisions. The meeting was very fun, I told him a few funny stories about my making, he listened with a twinkle in his eyes. One such story was when I first walked in, those years ago, to see only his french polisher. I had before made a lute and used eggwhite to stop the bleeding of the rosewood edging so with my bad spanish in those days I asked the man if he too used egg white, something like blanco de huevo... looking at me in horror and discust he said' HUEVOS?? no uso huevos..! soy el mejor barnisador en todo espana.. I shrunk and went back to the front of the shop. A while later snr Reyes walked in and welcomed me to look around.. very kind and genourous. He told me last week that this man was an ex guardia civil officer and had not much sense of humour and No time for perceived idiots..!hmmm. We laughed! so, I'll keep you informed about progress and upload some photos when he sees the guitar.
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