Tom Blackshear -> RE: Videoclip of my Reyes Model Guitar (Dec. 21 2008 14:27:47)
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ORIGINAL: Armando quote:
And another thing is that not all guitars work on the same principle Jose used, they can take on various top thicknesses, and according to many flamenco guitars, the top can be completely flat rather than graduated thinner at the edges. Tom Yes, i agree with you on that. Now as i know more about the Reyes design i have to admit, that the two designs are quite different and in some aspects opposed to each other. We should not forget that José builds classical guitars only. In contrast to all other spanish luthiers, he was the one who desided to take students and teach them, so i went to his course and learned from him. Now as he was my teacher, i'm somehow try to follow his line as i like the way he works. I've realized that many things are equal to the flamenco guitar making, some others aren't. So this other flamenco specific things are mostly known by theory, but maybe practically there are still some abilities that i'm missing. Regarding the flat soundboard, i know that most spanish makers from the pre Torres era have built their guitars with flat tops. After Torres successfully introduced the domed soundboard, most guitarmakers changed to this new design. Today i don't know any spanish flamenco guitar maker who builds with totally flat tops, so i think Reyes must be an exception. quote:
I believe it's better to, at least, show the student a measurement from which to work around, in a general area. Measurements are good to know when working with any musical instrument. And this doesn't mean the exact same thickness on all guitars of the same design but a medium from which to work. Well, i guess José didn't showed measurements because this could be easily taken as a reference measurement by some listeners. At his guitarmaking course he showed a detailled plan of his 1973 Julien Bream model, so there is nothing for him to hide. As i've allready mentioned i don't either support those guitarmakers who come up with certain measurement like they were valid in general for every guitar. José for instance showed us one of his guitars with the top being about 1,5mm thick. He added the comment, that such a thickness could only work with the stiffest sort of spruce. On the course there was a student who built his soundboard of quite bad quality spruce so the top ended having a thickness of 2,7mm in the center and José said that's fine. So you see, the difference might be more than a mm depending on the material used. Yes of course he could take the average between best and worst which would mean that a soundboard should be 2,1mm thick, but is that accurate? Therefore i agree with José that it is much more important to develop the senses and feel the wood and when the flex is right. regards Armando That's fine, Jose has his way and I have my way; no disrespect. They both work and this is to say that there is more than one way to build a guitar. I’ve built Jose's '73 pattern, and the first time I tried it I used my own intuition and built the guitar with different size struts; a little larger than the plan called for, and not graduated on its top thickness, like Jose's ideal. It turned out beautiful and had strong trebles and volume/projection, with good bass support. And what I'm also saying is that the Torres technique is to be considered in all of this. We don't cast out workable solutions in place of others unless it doesn't correspond to common synergistic cause. Btw, I have been building longer than Jose but I respect his ideas, as I do his mark of being a true gentleman. Sometimes we have to sit down and admit that it's not what you know but who you know in this business that will propel a guitar maker into the limelight and give him enough time to excel in his work. I chose my path a long time ago to be where I am, and I'm at peace about it.
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