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Hi folks,

About 8 years ago the German Classical Guitar Maker Gerhard Oldiges made me a copy of an old VHS tape he had gotten from his friend José Romanillos. The 18 minute film, which shows José building a guitar was made by students of a British Arts College. It is wonderfully filmed - not necessarily a real "how-to" video, but you can gather loads of invaluable information by just watching him using his tools and jigs.


He comments on life, guitar making in general and his personal philosophy, but the hands-on footage is absolutely superb!
I had to digitalize the film and put quite an amount of work in restoring the bad picture and sound quality. It is a wonderful document of a master at the peak of his guitar-building. Enjoy. I will post the second half in a the next two days.

Regards,
Holger
http://www.customguitarvideo.com/2009/09/14/jose-romanillos-01/

Now, that's awesome. It is great to see him working. So relaxed, and sure. Really sharp tools. His scrapers really remove some wood.

Can't wait for the next edition!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That was really nice. I'm looking forward to part 2.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

This is the best video I've seen yet......and gives a good representation of what it's like to be in his presence.

Yes, it is something to see him sharpen and use a scraper to the effect that he does.

A couple of changes in his method to note are:
-In the shot of him assembling the sides onto the solera, the back and top linings are in place, I would surmise from this that he was building without the "drop off" at this point (or if he wasn't he was doing it the hard way). His technique now is to attach the back kerfed linings to the sides only then to attach the top with separate dentellones once everything is in place.
-Also this was shot during the time that he was making rosettes en masse in a cylindrical lay up, then slicing them off and inlaying them all at once. At this point he seems to be using the alternate method of assembling the rosette into the top itself and widening the cut as needed.

I think it's easy to see why he has been so influential to guitars makers worldwide.

One thing I noticed, and liked, and thought might be useful, was the tall side supports for the Solera, with the holes in them for tapered wedges. That might be useful for holding a back on and be the start of the clamping process before putting the go-bars in place. It was quick and efficient, and proffered enough pressure to be the base clamps in the process. It also worked really well for installing sides with linings already installed. Where's Filippo??

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Great video. Thanks Holger!