Thursday, November 20, 2014

“A Guitar A Day”
Installment #6 – The Modern Classical Guitar

            Today’s instrument represents a modern classical guitar that was built in the year 2000. The label inside the guitar reads “M. Tezanos Perez.” After doing a bit of research it looks like the name of this company represents collaboration between Teodoro Perez and Mariano Tezanos. They both began working in the 1960’s in the famous Ramirez guitar shop in Madrid. They were both teenagers at the time taking full advantage of their opportunity by working their way up from sweeping floors and making deliveries to making guitars for Ramirez. It was when they left Ramirez and joined forces that they started building under their new name “M. Tezanos Perez.” The guitars that they made together put them at the top of their industry. It looks like Perez is still making guitars today. I’m not sure about Tezanos. I provided a link to a video of Perez being interviewed just a few years ago – looks like he’s still going strong!



            The body of todays’ guitar is a bit bigger then the parlor guitars that we’ve taken a look at over the past two days and the pyramid bridge is gone.  A couple of good descriptors for this guitar, from my perspective, would be “beefy” and “solid.” It plays like butter, but projects like a megaphone. The bass is prominent, but not boomy. The mids and highs are perfectly balanced. The sound of this guitar represents what is considered to be the traditional Spanish guitar sounds that Ramirez and many others were shooting for when they came up with the designs for these guitars. I love it. If I remember correctly this guitar has Brazilian rosewood sides and back and a German spruce top – really high end materials and it sounds and plays like it.
While this guitar has a spruce top, the Takamine that you’ll see tomorrow has a cedar top. The difference between these two woods is that the spruce tops need time to open up. They sound better and better the more you play them. The cedar top guitars don’t change as much in tone as you play them but you get a really good sense of how their going to sound from day one since they don’t really change, two things to consider when buying your next classical guitar. It’s important to learn something about the inherent sound qualities and tones of different woods especially when it comes to higher end guitars because you’ll have a wider range of choices. There are lots of luthiers to get to know. You’ll find all sorts of woods and design techniques. No matter what your price point is on a guitar, especially acoustic guitars, make a point to find out what they’re made of. You’ll eventually have preferences for playing and listening to particular guitars based on what they’re made out of and how they’re made. Maybe you’ll become fond of guitars built in the tradition of Torres – maybe not, but it’s fun to learn and decide for yourself!

The Guitars of Tezano Perez

Tedero Perez – How He Started As A Guitar Maker


















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