Extract from MASTER'S DEGREE IN MUSIC RESEARCH - MASTER'S FINAL PROJECT
Author: Francisco Alfonso Hernandez Bravo
University of Murcia
Faculty of Education
July 2023
- If it's not too indiscreet, how old are you?
41.
- Guitarist or luthier?
I think guitarero is more appropriate. Luthier is more for stringed instruments. Well, anyway, I think guitarero is more accurate. The world of the Spanish guitar is better defined with a Spanish term, so I think guitarrero is more accurate.
- How many years have you been a guitar maker/luthier?
Well, let's see, what happens is that it was a gradual process because I started playing the guitar,
Then I started repairing my own instruments, and then I started once I got my hands on it and took a course in 2016-17 with a guitar maker from Valencia. And that year I started to set up the workshop. It is more difficult to set up the workshop than a guitar, so it took more or less six or seven years.
-You told me you studied music, what instrument do you play? You started with the guitar, right?
Yes, I have studied jazz, modern harmony, but not formally, rather with private teachers and self-taught, but I started with a jazz guitarist in Huelva.
- Do you do this exclusively as a professional or as a hobby, combining it with another job?
Right now I combine it with another job. Apart from guitars, I fix pianos, I worked for conservatories tuning pianos and so on. I am a piano maintenance technician, that is, everything that has to do with the piano. So depending on the moment I combine it with another job. But it is what I like the most (guitar making), that is, if I could, I would do it full time. The thing is that sometimes, as a freelancer you have more or less movement and you have to complement it with something else.
- How was your apprenticeship as a guitar maker or how did you get into it?
For the same love of the guitar. In the end, as I was saying, you start trying to find your sound, your comfort in the guitar you have and there is a limit that you cannot cross when the guitar is from someone else, when the guitar is factory made. So you start to play with that, and today there is so much information online that trains you and you want to investigate and experiment more. There was an Online Guitar School by Carlos Busquiel, who is a Valencian guitar maker and I signed up. I started talking to him and I started making tools because, apart from making guitars, you learn to make tools, which is an important part of the job. And that's how I started.
- Who was your teacher?
Carlos Juan Busquiel.
- Do you have any workers or apprentices?
No, no. I haven't tried it because of space, because the space needs to be doubled, and because of different circumstances. It's a nice task to teach someone, but for now I haven't been able to do it.
- Do you only build chordophones?
Only guitars. That's why I also combine it with other jobs because I prefer to do what I like, rather than what the market demands. I prefer to make the guitar that I like rather than the one that is most in demand.
- How many guitars do you make a year?
I think I made about ten guitars a year in the first few years, but now I make six a year. In total I have thirty guitars.
- Custom made or estimated?
I make them to order. I receive orders from my website and, when I don't have orders, I make the guitar and sell it, but if I have orders I obviously try to explain why I do what I do and I always reach an agreement with the guitarist.
- What is the market niche for your guitars (students, professionals, etc.)?
Of everything, because in the end it is an expensive instrument. It is an instrument that is not factory-made and is not made in series or by machines, so I do not sell a thousand guitars a year. So, if someone asks for a modern handmade guitar we work together, since it is a shared project, and it does not bother me if it is a beginner or a professional. It is aimed at everyone.
- What sector (flamenco, traditional, classical, etc.)?
The one I have sold the most is the Spanish guitar. I have also sold flamenco guitars and I have also sold acoustic guitars. Now I am experimenting with archtop guitars, which are built like violins, because I come from a jazz background. But the ones I have sold the most are the Spanish guitars. I have been to fairs like the one in Paris, and there is more demand for folk guitars, so now I am making folk guitars for French clients.
- Within the construction of the guitar and its family, what method do you follow?
I started with the traditional Spanish version, but now I use the dovetail version. I like it better because it's more practical for me. Working on the instrument in two parts is more comfortable and you don't have to go around the workshop with the guitar in one piece. First I make the body, work on it and then I make the neck, and then I put it together. Then the guitar itself is set up at the end. I like it better, it seems more comfortable to me. But the quality of the instrument is not due to one method or another. But I like making the parts separately better.
- Do you have any problems inserting the neck into the body due to the inclination in the
dovetail method?
No, it's not difficult. Each method has its more complex aspects and others that make your work easier. The dovetail method requires you to pay more attention to, for example, the inclination of the mast, but in the traditional method you have to have a whole frame and you have to take care of certain aspects that you don't with the dovetail. And so on, and vice versa. So, you don't choose the method because it's better but because it's more comfortable in your circumstances.
- Conservative, maintaining Torres' scheme, or innovative?
Totally innovative. That's why I tell you that if I had to consider the market and go out and dedicate myself exclusively, as for example Carlos Juan does (I've talked to him about it), I would make a traditional Spanish guitar, but I like to experiment because I'm a guitarist before I'm a guitar maker, that is, I consider myself more of a musician than a craftsman. So I make the guitar that I like and that I like to explore. I don't use traditional bracing. I like to experiment with volumes, with thicknesses and I'm more of an experimenter, trying something new with each guitar. For example, I make bracing that is inclined towards the highs. The highs always need more mass and the lows need more freedom. So I tilt it like this and give it a little more thickness in the highs, and more freedom here. The bracing is seven in the shape of a diamond. For me, there can't be an exact template because it depends on each top, so if the wood bends more, you have to open the fan; If the wood is more rigid horizontally, perpendicular to the grain you can close the fan a little, so it depends on each top. I don't have an exact template for the bracing. But in the end I didn't invent anything. I'm simply collecting things from other builders on certain guitars. For example, for me the opening in the upper ring on the first lobe is fundamental because it enriches a lot of the guitar's sounds for the player.
- Any other contribution?
The soul of the Spanish guitar is crucial for me and that reinforcement is not usually used. I need the action to be very controlled. I tell you as a guitarist that I do it because I know how practical it is to control the height of the strings well to the tenth of a millimeter. On the Spanish guitar I use the flamenco guitar action of 3 mm, not the traditional 4 mm at the 12th fret. It is true that with the high action the guitar sounds better, cleaner, but it is more uncomfortable. The medium action of 3 mm makes the performance more enjoyable, but of course, you always have to be aware that you are going to sacrifice one thing for another. But that is chosen by the client and his way of playing.
- What tools do you use: only manual or also electric?
Both. I try to do the hardest work, such as calibrating the wood, with calibrators or I order it directly from the supplier because I don't have the space to have calibrators, so I buy the wood calibrated.
- Do you have a preference for any particular wood? Who supplies it?
For the tops, it depends on the string. For example, I really like a cedar top. I understand that a spruce top is the best because of the performance it gives you, but I really like a cedar top. Canadian spruce, more precisely, because it is not cedar at the end of the day. And with the sides and the back, since it affects the sound to a much lesser extent than the top, I experiment to the maximum. I really like ebony and I really like rosewood. Yes, a cedar top and a dense back. I buy almost everything at Maderas Barber, because I trust them, and if I don't find something specific, I go to Madinter.
- Are you going to choose the woods?
When I go, I try to buy things that I can't buy online, like for example, wood on sale or things that they don't offer online because they have defects, but if it's outside the template, it's not a problem and you need to see that. I do it both ways.
- What do you think about original antique instruments: conservation or use?
For me, the instrument cannot be a piece of furniture, nor a relic. It has to be something alive and it has to be at the service of the musician. Obviously, it has to be placed carefully in places that are not accessible to anyone, but if you can't get music out of it in the end... Well, I don't have a position either, but well, I understand both sides.
- Do you dare to give your opinion on the origin of the guitar as an instrument in itself?
Not much, I'm not that interested. I haven't really looked at the origins because I'm looking more to the future than to the past. I've studied Torres' guitar. I have the book that Romanillos wrote about Torres, but I haven't studied that much because it's not what I like most about building instruments. I like the future more, experimenting, what other guitar makers are doing with the instrument, like other types of guitars, whether acoustic or folk, in order to add to the Spanish guitar rather than going backwards.
- How do you see the profession today?
Well, it is growing. There are many more guitar makers because of access to information and education. Before, it was passed down from father to son and it was very difficult to transmit it, since it was only face-to-face. Now there are a lot of online offers, there are even a lot of guitar makers who you pay for your guitar and they teach you and help you set it up. So, regardless of whether you are interested in this as a profession, you can access a lot of training this way. There is a lot more on offer.
- What do you think should be the goal of guitar making in the coming years?
I'll tell you what I see about the guitar. I like to open it up to new sounds, to give it new forms, not just the traditional guitar, which obviously has to continue to be maintained because there is a traditional repertoire and it has to be maintained and that works better with the traditional guitar, but for me it's good that there are different guitars. I would like to see that continue to evolve so that it enriches the guitar player and the guitarist.
- Is there anything missing from the profession (regulation, teaching, etc.)?
It would be great and I think people would come from a lot of places. People from a lot of other countries go to Cremona to study violin, so if you decide to set up a school in Almería where Torres was, I think it would be a plus. Selling a Spanish guitar made in Spain. A Spanish guitar school in Spain. Of course, that would be a great goal for teaching, for professionals here and for everyone else.
- Do you think it would be a vocational training or even a career?
university? Would you be in favor?
Of course, it's possible to do anything. It depends on how much you want to get involved with the instrument. With research and development you can do a two-year course or an apprenticeship or an assistant or even a career as a guitar maker. There are Australian guitar makers who have a lot of mathematics with books they have written and you need mathematical and physical training to understand the function of a guitar in terms of numbers and physical principles. That's where you need other training. Then you would have to include mathematical physics and obviously the degree is longer, but that depends on the way you want to approach it. You can do a university degree. It would be very entertaining.
- Do you keep in touch with other guitar makers from within or outside the region?
Yes, you make a lot of contacts at the fair. I always send emails to Carlos, although I haven't sent them to him for a while now, but when I was in the development phase I always wrote him an email. But not to many. Likewise, now, for example, I'm in the world of archtop guitars and I write to guitar makers who have experience in this field. So, in the end, most of them answer you, and so, as if they ask me, I also answer because it's a noble profession and they share information. You don't need to write to them, there are many who already share on YouTube. There are guitar makers who sell you a $30,000 guitar like Ken Parker's archtop guitar. He has a whole series on YouTube, free and open source, on how to make guitars. And you're learning to make a guitar that he charges $30,000. So it's a profession from which you can learn a lot without having to sign up for a course and pay. I also had contact with Luis Guerrero, who makes acoustic guitars using the traditional Spanish method and is very good at what he does. A type of acoustic guitar has been launched for sale abroad, but made using the traditional system. It's interesting.
- Do you participate in exhibitions?
I went to the one in Paris, and in just these six years and three years of pandemic, I have only been to the one in Paris. I had signed up for the one in Madrid but in the end I didn't go, although I will go at some point.
- Is being a musician necessary or is it a basic characteristic for a luthier or guitar maker?
It is very enriching. In fact, on my website, there are some comments that say that you can tell that the guitar is made by a guitarist, not just by a guitar maker, and it is good that the people who buy it tell you that, right? That they realize it, because in the end the configuration and comfort of the instrument is noticeable when you have a level when playing that instrument, because you are taking care of it since you are making it for yourself. So, if you are a good guitarist, it is noticeable in the guitar that you sell, more than if you simply play some chords to be able to know what the guitar is about. The level of the instrumentalist is noticeable in the level of instruments, yes. Although I do not think that all guitar makers understand this in this way.
- Do you think there is a traditional school of Murcian guitar making or a distinctive identity?
No, but well, I'm not from Murcia, I don't know. In the end I've been here for a certain number of years, I haven't been here for long and I haven't done any research. I do know the one in Granada because I trained there. When I started I was in Granada and maybe that was also where I was enriched, but no, I don't know if the Murcian School of Guitar Making exists, no, no.
-Any ideas or suggestions?
I would like, for example, that there be a local guitar fair like in other places, right? A meeting place to exhibit your guitars, that is, at the conservatory, doesn't have to be a fair, right? It should be a meeting of guitar makers with guitarists or a place where they can also try out the guitar, well, it happens in many cities. And if you give me the opportunity, I say: "please, do it." Of course, it's a good opportunity at the conservatory, for example, but that needs someone who gets involved and is interested in organizing something like that.
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