Official Luthiers Forum!

By far the most important thing that happened to me on joining this forum those years ago was my ‘meeting’ with Joshua French, one truly world class guitar maker. Joshua is a very likeminded builder to me; to both of us the tradition is very important. One of the first things he persuaded me to do was get the Romanillos book on Torres, I now have three copies! At about the same time my teacher gave me a book of the music of Tarrega. Although I already own a high end Torres model guitar, I would inevitably have to build a guitar closer to the First Epoch Torres that Tarrega used. The closest match I could find with sufficient published detail was FE19, a similar design and made in the same year as Tarrega’s FE17. After lengthy discussions with Joshua the Die was cast and La leña was conceived.

La leña
Top: Picea orientalis
B&S: Madagascan rosewood
Neck: Cedrela
Fingerboard and binding: Ebony
Bridge and headplates: BRW (1840)
Tuner: Fustero (so Spanish!)
Finish: Frank Coopers Thick Cut Oxford Marmalade. (That’s what it says on the jar)
Tornavoz.

This guitar is very lightly built, the top varied from about 2mm to 1.8mm before final tuning. The finish is in fact a hand rubbed oil varnish as close to the original finish as possible. The guitar was built completely with hand tools, no routers, bandsaws, etc just chisels, planes and handsaws.

The voice
This guitar was conceived and built solely with the music of Tarrega and the other Spanish composers in my mind; I like the lute for the Northern European music, so I wanted a warm rich voice, with good clarity and projection. I wanted to feel the warm Andalucía sun on my back. Did it succeed? Well, you must be your own judge, but it has delivered all I wanted. La leña has great projection, while maintaining clarity and has a rich complex tone. We tried it in the college’s concert hall and all the subtlety and nuance of tone was carried to the back of the hall without any sign of muddiness. I believe that the characteristics of the guitar own a lot to the tornavoz which seems to concentrate and enhance what would have been the natural characteristic of the voice. I recorded some Tarrega in the studio, so I’ll attach a piece.

Sueno

Can I just say that this guitar would never have been built without the advice and support of Joshua, he is a very generous and knowledgeable guy to have on your side. I will forever be in his debt.

I suppose you all want to see some pictures?

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Wow! The guitar itself is simply gorgeous! And the voice, well that was awe inspiring.....

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Beautiful guitar Colin!! The sound clip is some of the prettiest I have heard also... Thanks for sharing!!

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Reguards,

Ken H

I am in awe of your skills and talents. That is a magnificent instrument, worthy of your skills as a player. Great delivery on Sueno! My hat's off to you!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Very nIce Colin,
jack

Beautiful playing, beautiful guitar, gorgeous sound. Why didn't you make the top in 3 or 4 non-bookmatched parts and the back in 3, preferably 5 pieces?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Wow Colin the guitar is beautiful and so too is the playing!!!!

I already have you on my IPod and this will get added now too.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

WHAT ? ! ? ! ? ! ? ! No Mahogany? ? ? ? ? ? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !




Gorgeous....simply gorgeous. I'm not sure you can ever out-do yourself Colin, but is sure looks like you tried awful hard...

Where's that clapping emoticon anyway!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I join the reclusive Don Williams when I say, "what a magnificent instrument". Stunning, really.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Wow...wow...If it sounds that good through my cheesy PC speakers.....WOW!

Great job. That is inspiring from start to finish!

Joe

Lovely Colin!
BTW have you heard from Joshua?.....I haven't seen a post from him in quite some time....

He's only posted a few times since the end of October. He mentioned that he was moving and very busy. I did see him on line, a few weeks ago, but he didn't post. That was before the move to the new system. I was wondering about him too. I miss his input on many of the subjects that I am most interested in.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Congratulations Colin!! She sings as sweetly as she looks. Clear and very well rounded tone. Your playing technique has brought out the best in a wonderful instrument and you must be very proud. My hat is off to you.

If it sounds that nice at the present just think how it will sound once it plays in a bit.

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Peter

Stunning Colin!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Nice git, Colin!

What's your take on the p. orientalis? I have a couple of sets, and my intuition has been telling me classical rather than steel string. Any description of its working characteristics or how you think it tends to contribute to sound would be welcome.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Colin, you continue to inspire! La leña is a gorgeous guitar and has a sweet voice as well. Bravo!!!

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Beautiful guitar. You must be proud.

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Jamie M

Colin,
You do continue to impress! What a beautiful instrument, and a fabulous bit of playing. Thank you for posting.
By the way, what strings are you using?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

My guess would be Hannabach Goldins - not sure what tension.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Great job Colin! Just as I told you in email, I'm not at all surprised you came out with such a great sounding (and looking!) instrument. I expected nothing less - Congratulations!

So how many more classicals do you plan to make?

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier

Nice Colin - very, very nice.....

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Very classy Colin! I'm tremendously impressed. Thanks for showing it to us.
Terry

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Colin,
Very very nice. I especially enjoyed you recording.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Very nice playing Colin! Beautiful guitar too!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Lovely!

I saw it yesterday on my home computer and I was impressed, but I didn't want to comment until I heard the sound of the recording, which I now have here at my work... I am even more impressed, both with the guitar and your playing.

Your standards are high and you set a fine example for all of us to follow.

Madrose from Madinter?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin