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August 16, 2004, the beginning

I first met Joshua French June 18th of 2004.

I had been researching information about Classical and Spanish guitars online because I was planning on having a guitar built for myself after a couple of very disappointing purchases. As my research progressed, I became aware of something very important. The guitars made by Antonio Torres were still considered the best in the world. The Romeros all play Torres guitars. There have been few, if any, successful attempts to produce a guitar with better sound than the age old, completely intuitive designs of Antonio Torres. I decided that my guitar had to be produced from this model, so I began researching luthiers who could fulfill this requirement.

One person eventually rose dramatically to the top of the list, and that was Joshua French. Not only did he have an impeccable pedigree, having attended master luthier classes with Jose Romanillos, but the quality standard he displayed on his website was stunning. Furthermore, he has taken the trouble to incorporate an 18 hole bridge, a modern convenience and improvement over traditional bridge designs, making it not only much easier to string up the guitar, but providing for an improvement in the break angle, allowing for a closer action without the danger of string buzz.

The thing that finally made me call him, however was the incorporation of the tradional Tornavoz in his design. This was an essential component of the best sounding Torres guitars. Many modern luthiers have attempted to utilize this component without success, the reason being that there is only one right way to do it. Joshua French is one of only a couple of people who understand what this secret technique is and how to implement it successfully. Add to these facts the striking beauty of his rosettes and other finished instruments, and the choice was clear for me.

I gave Joshua a call and found him to be extraordiarily pleasant, intelligent, and articulate. We discussed my specific needs and it soon became clear that he was the right choice, so the decision was made to move forward. In his first email to me, Joshua writes:

"Jerry,
It was great talking with you last night. Let me say that, while I certainly put my heart and soul into every guitar I make, when I make guitars for customers who I feel are on exactly the same page as me in terms of what we want out of the guitar (and thus trust my advice on how we're going to get just that), the guitars are a bit more special. I'm excited to be making another tornavoz guitar with Spanish Cypress. The clarity and beauty of tone on the last one I made of cypress was absolutely exceptional. In fact, the gentleman I made that guitar for owns some pretty great guitars. He once owned a Hauser Sr., but likes both his Tobias Braun guitars better. When he received the guitar I made him, he told me that he has never loved any guitar except his Tobias Brauns, but that he loves the guitar I made for him. Incidentally, I actually got the soundboard wood from Tobias, who cuts it himself in Austria. When we decided on the materials and such for this guitar, we made the decision based on what would yield the best guitar. In fact Jose Romanillos' preference is for Cypress back and sides, but he says they're hard to sell because everybody thinks they're flamenco guitars and they're not. This is why we decided we'd take a chance on the cypress, and he took a chance on the tornavoz as well, having never heard one. All much in the way you're doing, and I have very high expectations for your guitar."

Below you will see some pictures of a rosette of the same type that would be used for my guitar as it was being constructed.

1) In this picture you see the marquetry log Joshua has constructed from which to cut the pieces for the inlay.

 4) Here's a shot of the dummy lines being removed.
2) Here you see the inlay embedded in the routed circular groove.

 5) A couple of shots of the finished Rosette.
3) In this picture there are some dummy lines for inlay that will later be removed

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In a later email, dated the June 20th as well, I gave Joshua some pretty specific requests for dimensions for the guitar, here they are, and his reply follows.

Joshua,

What I'm trying to do here is put together a final spec sheet for this construction based on all of our previous conversations and a few new thoughts I have had. Please let me know if I leave anything out.

* Top - Aged Austrian spruce

* Back and sides - Cypress (was it Spanish cypress?)

* Your new style rosette

* Tornavoz

* Bindings, purflings and peghead ornamentation - I believe you mentioned that you would be using Brazilian Rosewood for these.

* Fretboard - My preference is for ebony if this is okay, with position markers inlaid on the side of the fretboard AND on the face of the fretboard at fret positions 3 5 7 9 12 15 and 17 (I know this is not typical for a classical style guitar, but hey, I've been playing dreadnoughts most of my life, and old habits die hard). I prefer abalone for these markers, but again, the final decision for this material is up to you, and whatever you choose will be fine.

* Neck - I prefer a very strong stable wood for the neck. I'm not sure if you were going to use cypress for this or something else. I don't know the strength characteristics of cypress, but it seems I've seen all kinds of materials used for necks, from cedar to cypress to mahogany. There is something about the Ramirez neck that really appeals to me. They run a length of what I believe to be ebony down the center of the neck on the back, and I think it's for reinforcement. I can tell you one thing, that neck is as flat and as straight as an arrow. I'd be interested in hearing your comments on this issue.

* Neck width at nut - 51 mm if possible. I know that 53 is standard, and what I'm really after here is ideal string spacing with the narrowest and thinnest neck that is practical, so if I'm off base asking for this, just set me straight.

* Neck width at soundhole - 63 mm, (I think this will give a width at the 12th fret of about 60 mm which is what I'm really looking for).

* Neck thickness at nut just before it starts to enlarge at the peghead - 20 mm or less

* Neck thickness just before it starts to enlarge at the heel joint - 23 mm or less

* String spacing at nut - 44 mm

* String spacing at bridge - 57 mm

* String height at 12th fret - 2 to 3 mm, anywhere in that range will be acceptable, so whatever will work without buzzing, I'd like to see it about 2 mm, but I'm not sure that will be practical, you're going to have to decide on this issue what's best.

* Cross section radius of neck - Now this is going to be a little hard to describe, I'm going to try to draw a little picture to give you the idea of what I'm looking for. Most of the necks on my classical guitars are kind of "planky", that is, they're mostly real flat on the bottom, and then they make almost a right angle curve up the sides to meet the edges of the fretboard. I'm not sure if this is something necessary for structural or strength purposes, but what I'd personally like to see is a neck with a more rounded curve that lets me get my hand around it easier, more like a dreadnought. I'm including a picture in this email in jpg format so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about. Keep in mind this picture is just meant to give an idea and is by no means very accurate, please use your own judgement as to how to radius the neck.

* I mentioned in my last email to you that a cutaway would be nice. This is going to have to be your choice, again, the deciding factor will be whether or not this interferes with your construction process and if it will adversely affect the sound of the guitar.

Regards,
Jerry

Joshua responds:


Jerry,

Thank you much for your emails. As we get these details worked out I will be sure to keep a copy of these emails for when I do the shaping of the neck.

The top will be Alpine Spruce - I have some from both Austria and Italy. Both make excellent soundboards. Everything I have is more then 10 years air dried (I strive hard to not use kiln dried woods) and very sufficiently seasoned. I usually choose the soundboard intuitively - whichever speaks to me and seems it will work best with the overall concept of the guitar and the other woods - and while this may mean one 50 years or older I try not to make the age the determining factor. But none of them are young at all. Alpine Spruce is my favorite wood on earth, so I always am particular to use the right soundboard.

Back and sides will be in Spanish Cypress, and your guitar will have the new rosette, a tornavoz in brass. The bindings will be Brazilian Rosewood, as will the bridge and headplates. I usually do a headplate on he back too, to show off the V-joint - usually I join it from cutoffs of the back, but in this case the Spanish Cypress would be too light for that, so it will be Brazilian Rosewood too. This is just as in the pictures of 'La Sombra'.

Your neck dimensions are fine, and I also lean toward a less flat profile for my necks. I always use ebony for the fingerboard, and I have no objection to including the position dots as you requested. I might recommend though, that in a guitar such as this, mother of pearl dots might look more refined.

I use Spanish Cedar for the necks, which actually comes from Central America. Its a very traditional neck wood and my favorite because it is strong, light, and very stable. Much more stable than mahogany for instance (and about 15% lighter), with much less tendency to move or twist. Some makers try to make things like the neck and the back and sides overly strong with the idea that it will isolate the soundboard as the sole vibrating part of the guitar, but I take a different approach. I like everything to be balanced, everything to work together in as close of harmony as possible - thus while the soundbaord is the most important part of a guitar, I believe all things play a role. And this isn't only in terms of sound, but playability as well. When everything works together right, it all just FEELS right too... it responds right to both hands, it plays easy... many things, but thing that cannot be attributed to a measurement of action and string spacing and so forth, but is the sum of many factors.

Some of these factors include the forward angle of the neck, the type of neck joint used (I always use the traditional Spanish heel, where the sides are let into the neck which is integral), the angle of the head, the way the head is attached, the flexibility of the soundboard, the size of the bridge, the scale length, the break angle of the strings behind the saddle, the thickness of the neck, the thickness of the fingerboard.... I am pretty good at getting all these things balanced with each other to achieve excellent playability. I do this without any reinforcement in the neck, as I consider it unnecessary - and while a neck that doesn't shift or bow or move is important to me, its lightness and ability to transfer sound is also quite important. This comes down to good woods and good joints, and has never posed any problem for me. Also, while some guitars may appear to be straight as an arrow, it is almost impossible to make a guitar play well without a slight bit of relief between the first and 12th frets, to compensate for the vibrational curve of the strings, particularly in the basses.

As an experiment, take your Ramirez and press down the first fret on the low E with the first finger of your left hand. Next, press down the 12th fret on the same string with the pinky of your right hand. And with your thumb or first finger of your right hand, see if you can press the string down any at the 8th fret, or if its sitting right on top of it. If its right on top of it, a guitar with low action is likely to buzz in the lower register.

Sorry to be so thorough, but I hope you can see what I mean about the neck. Your dimensions are well within workability with the way I normally make my guitars, and won't require any added reinforcement to the neck.

I recommend the neck thickness at the first fret to be 20mm, and 22mm at the 8th fret. I make a fairly small heel, so the accessibility is quite comfortable. I'm not sure how making a cutaway would affect the sound, but its not something I'm inclined to do - partially because I love the traditional form of the guitar, and also because the manner in which I make them would require new templates and molds, and Spanish Cypress is a difficult wood to bend into such tight curves as well.

In comparison with your Ramirez, my guitars are significantly lighter and a bit smaller. The difference should be night and day, and especially with the materials we're choosing for your guitar and the addition of the tornavoz you are going to end up with a spectacular instrument. For the kind of music you play, a tornavoz guitar closely based on Torres will be perfect, and you will be surprised at how much more you can keep getting out of it the more you play it and figure out how to best manipulate the tone, which is easy. Lightly made instruments are more responsive and have a wider tonal palette it seems, and the tradition of the Spanish Guitar, for me, lies more in the hands of Manuel Ramirez in the 1900s then the later Ramirez makers. But ultimately for me, Torres and Romanillos are the best. I've seen and heard 3 Torres, and they were spectacular. The only thing that ever came close to those was the final Romanillos, which is an unbelievable instrument. The difference between a recent Ramirez and the older Spanish guitars is in the soundboard wood and the heaviness of construction. I'll close this with an interesting quote about deviating from the guitar as established by Torres. This was translated by Jose Romanillos from a letter he received from Jose Ramirez III:

"I have never, in any way, followed the Torres standards; the structure of the soundboard of two bars either side of the soundhole and various numbers of struts, is centuries older than Torres. I wanted to break with this scheme several times, without success and will keep trying."

Let me know how this all sounds to you.

best wishes,
Joshua