Almost each and every one of us has had a chance to hold a guitar of some sort in our hands, or hear someone play it. I dare as well say that many of us have a memory of that characteristic mixture of the scent of wood and dust, so many guitars, forgotten in a dark corner of our house have…
On the other hand, not many of us ponder what it takes to build a Spanish guitar entirely by hand as this family has been doing ever since Domingo Esteso established our workshop in 1915.
The most common questions we get from our customers, visitors and curious onlookers here at our workshop at the 4 Arrieta Street are: “How long does it take to build a guitar?” or “What type of wood do you use and why?” amongst others…
The answers to these questions are usually quite surprising to many. To build a top quality Spanish artisanal guitar takes at least two to three months of highly specialized full-time work. A luthier is constantly in training and his or her learning never stops.
The Wood
Invariably, building process of a quality Spanish guitar starts with the selection of the best possible wood. This step is crucial since the materials that we select to build a guitar will determine the sound and future stability of the instrument. Wood employed in building of high quality guitars is always solid. They are selected for their origin, aesthetic value and above all for their capacity to vibrate in the best possible way in order to produce that ideal sound.
Drying of the wood is also a very important step. The wood should be left to dry naturally for at least ten to fifteen years, and in the case of concert guitars thirty years or more. Some would say that it takes thirty years and three months to build a top quality guitar if we keep in mind how long does a luthier have to wait so the material he or she employs reaches its optimum.
For the harmonic top we use German spruce (picea abies) usually sourced in Central Europe for its ideal density and straight and uniformly spaced grain. Alternatively, we also use red Canadian cedar (thuja plicata) especially for classical guitars. Selecting a good top for a guitar is of pivotal importance since some eighty per cent of the sound produced by a guitar comes from the vibration of the harmonic top.
For the back and sides, traditionally cypress (cupressus sempervirens) is used for flamenco guitars. Different varieties of rosewood such as the Indian rosewood (dalbergia latifolia), cocobolo (dalbergia retusa) or the Madagascar variety (dalbergia baronii) are also employed to build classical, and since three or four decades ago, also flamenco guitars.
The neck is built out of Honduran cedar (cedrela odorata) and ebony (diospyros crassiflora hiern) is used for the fret board.We use Honduran cedar for its strength and lightness, and ebony for its strength and very high density not very many natural materials possess. In this way the guitar neck sustains the tremendous pressure each string exerts on it.
Stay tuned for a new post about how we build guitars at Felipe Conde´s workshop.