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A bit over a year ago I was asked to build a Torres homage to be set up much like an original with lower action and gut strings. It just so happened that my mentor in Spain had recently made a mold and solera of Torres FE-13 shortly before I was set to assist him with one of the month long guitar making courses he runs under the "European Institute of Guitar Making". After the course ended (and I took a few days to sleep after a hectic month of teaching guitar making 8 hours a day and working on my own guitars for 4-6 hours a day) I got to work on a guitar that pays homage to the original guitar but with some notable departures, notably Italian birds eye maple back and sides instead of rio rosewood.

Here are some photos of the guitars construction as well as the first video the client has recorded with the guitar

And here's the video of the guitar in use (can't figure out how to embed a YouTube video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DmR9DG23R0

Nice work, as usual, Brian! I've been leaning towards an FE for a future build—FE13 might well be where I land. SE114s are selling well, but some of my customers are getting curious about the smaller Torreses.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Thanks Pat! My favorite Torres plantillas are both first epoch, FE-05 and FE-13. I've built a few guitars on the former shape and this is the first of the latter but it definitely won't be the last. I plan to build a batch of 3 of the FE-13 models: one in rosewood, one in birds eye maple, and the last in cypress when I'm back in Spain this autumn.

If you're looking for the FE-13 shape I found the measurements in the Romanillos book paired with the full size print found in "34 Classical Guitars in Life Size" made for easy work when drawing the plantilla.

Beautiful work Brian! And it sounds very good too.

I have made several guitars with the FE-13 plantilla, with tornavozes. It's a great shape for a smaller guitar. If anyone would like to hear the original FE13 it is played here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlFNLs-_0MQ , and also on Stefano Grondona's recording called Temas de Recuerdos.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier

Wonderful work. And a very fun thing to do to Lagrima

Cheers Dave

Very nice Brian. I also think it's a fun change up to Lagrima.
I was at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix the last week and they had FE-20 on display.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Nice job, sounds great! I love the traditional rosette. Did you use the same method Torres used to get the green purfles?