Friday, December 28, 2012

The Spanish guitar


The beautiful sound of a Spanish guitar has conquered a place in the heart of many people. Today there is a versatility of Spanish guitars for sale. The guitar is for sale in most music stores and the price of these instruments varies from 75,-$ to 15,000,-$. The great range in variation of prices, mainly comes forth from the fact that the guitar is built in a production line in a factory or hand-built by a master builder (luthier). The guitars manufactured in a factory, are build with less expensive wood and cheaper components, manufactured by mass production and therefore can be sold cheaper. However, today there are very good factory guitars for sale.

The Luthier


The luthier takes the guitar to a higher level by traveling the world looking for the finest pieces of wood such as Cedar or Spruce-wood for the soundboard, ebony for the finger board and Rosewood for the back and sides. The soundboard is a massif piece of wood at the more expensive guitars, which creates a wider projection of sound. These guitars often are played at a concert in a concert hall without amplification. The last years there is a 'cheaper' line, build by Luthiers, released. These guitars are build outside their workplace, often in a factory. These guitars are built in accordance with the directives and dimensions of the more expensive models. The big difference is that, here also, less expensive wood and materials are used and that there is less manual work, resulting in a more affordable product.

The strings


The strings on a Spanish guitar are nylon strings. The three upper strings (E, A, D) are wrapped with, for example, steel or nickel. The three lower strings (G, B, E) are not wrapped. In the early period these strings were made of intestines (gut strings). Around 1930, they switched to nylon. This is ultimately cheaper and nylon strings remain better and stay longer in tune. However, there still are people who claim that the gut strings produce a warmer sound. Guitarist Stefano Grondona has very recently released a cd were he played a guitar with gut strings.

String tensions


The strings for a Spanish guitar are available in various tensions. The tension results in different volumes and also affects the flexibility of playing. The higher tension strings makes it harder for the guitarist, because it simply is heavier to push the strings on the finger board.

Some examples of Spanish 'factory' guitars for sale at music stores:
  • Alhambra (Spain)

  • Manuel Rodriguez (Spain)

  • Salvador (Spain)


Some examples of very nice hand Spanish guitars built by Luthiers:
  • Ramirez (Spain)

  • Contreras (Spain)

  • Bernabe (Spain)


Some examples of Spanish guitars played by the World Summit in classical music:
  • Torres (Spain) played by Francisco Tarrega, Miguel Llobet, Stefano Grondona.

  • Hauser (Germany) played by Andres Segovia, Pepe Romero, Julian Bream

  • Fleta (Spain) played by John Williams

  • Smallman (Australia) played by John Williams

  • Redgate (Australia) played by Anna Vidovic


Read more about the Spanish guitar :

historyofthespanishguitar.blogspot.com

Check out this video of Landler by Johann Kaspar Mertz (Played on a Contreras Guitar) :