About:
Hello and welcome to my web site. I would like to share with you the great passion that I have for the classical guitar. I have the good fortune to be able to dedicate my professional life (and a good part of my private life as well!) to its construction, its history and the wonderful music it produces. I therefore invite you to browse through these few pages, get acquainted with my hand-made guitars and get a feel for my "vision" and method of construction.
Approach
I sincerely believe that every guitar has its own personality. Although I follow and respect well established fundamental guitarmaking principles, my instruments are built and designed from my own ideas with regards to the shape of the body (plantilla), the head and neck, the rosette, the strutting system and the various aesthetics aspects.
"My goal is to create instruments which are truly original in their design and characteristics, and with specific personalities that will appeal to the professional guitarists as well as students and amateurs.".
Method
I normally use the traditional Spanish method to assemble my guitars. I start with the neck and glue it to the top while being held in place by a shaped workboard called a solera. The sides are bent and joined to the top and neck, followed by the back. I try to use traditional hand tools (hand planes, files, rasps, scrapers and hand saws) as much as possible and only use power tools as a last resort. While this approach requires more time (and a bit of the old "elbow grease"!) in the construction of the instrument, I for one believe that there is a certain "spirituality" in working the raw wood by hand, which transpires through the soul of the instrument. Let us not forget after all that lutherie is an art!
Materials
I use Western Red Cedar and Spruce (Englemann or Europeen) for my guitar tops. I prefer East Indian Rosewood for the backs and sides, for its excellent sound properties and affordable price. I also use other woods for the back and sides, such as Brazilian, Madagascar, Honduran and Amazon Rosewood, Cocobolo or Maple. The necks are made of Spanish Cedar and reinforced with Ebony. As for the rosette, the bindings, purflings, head veneers and various ornamentations, I like to use woods from anywhere in the world, according to my inspiration at the time of assembly and the availability of certain types of woods. .
Finish
As for finishing, I like to choose methods which are environmentally friendly. That is why I offer natural lacquer ("French Polish"), water-based lacquer finishes as well as oil finishes, or a combination of two or three of these finishes!
Sound
Sound is in the end what matters most. It is also the most subjective of criteria since each listener's opinion is different as to what one wants to hear in a guitar. A luthier must then decide and thrive to achieve the sound he/she is looking for. The potential buyer should listen to guitars from different luthiers in order to find the guitar that matches his/her criteria the best. Despite this subjective approach, the luthier must respect some basic characteristics of a quality guitar sound. These are aspects like balance, volume, projection, clarity, seperation, sustain, refinement, etc. In order to give you some idea of the sound that defines my guitars, you can listen to a few sound files in MP3 format by going to the "Media" page.
