“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
No comments:
Post a Comment