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I would also say that there is an "airy-ness" and "growl" in a true Spanish guitar.

If anyone wants an mp3 of what I believe to be the true Spanish sound PM me.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

When I was interviewing the guitarists that showed up at Jose's gathering and asked them to describe what they considered the sound qualities of a classic Spanish guitar to be the response was interesting.

They described it was "un seco vino", a dry wine...when I asked them to elaborate they said when you first take a sip of a dry wine, the dryness is what first hits you (that would equate to the growl which is the attack part of the sound wave) followed by the second impression which is generally the flavor followed by the aftertaste. The flavor would be the sound of the that is heard including its volume and tone...the aftertaste is other qualities such as overtones, note separation and other sometimes intangible things that make up the composite of what is heard as the "Spanish" sound.

While this is an overly simple comparison but if asked to describe the sound of a Smallman people first say loud, of Damman they say dark tone, so perhaps it is possible to agree on the basics of what could be typified as the spanish sound as just as the Ramirez 60-80s sound could be described.

Shawn, Thanks for posting this great information,Very interesting stuff.I've GOT to try Shanes Lutz spruce now.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Another question about the class - is Romanillos still cutting the arches out of the harmonic bars to allow 2 thin braces to run up beside the rosette into the upper bout?

I just strung up my 3rd guitar that I built from the LMI Romanillos design and it's the best yet.

yes...note that the cutouts are not straight as I have seen in some plans but instead are angled so that the cutout angles overlap the line of the previous braces cutout. In this way if a top split from near the heel it would be stopped by the next harmonic bar it comes to.

the cutouts look something like this

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/      |

Every part of Romanillos design has been well thought out. Even though Jose has been "retired" from full time building for almost 10 years, he is still very active and even at this year's course he brought out a jig for cutting the neck slots, a way to try 2 or 3 tapered wedges instead of one solid one, and a modification that he had come up with for the Fox style bender in which the side of the jig facing you could be removed to more easily insert the sides and or bindings and to better line up parts... none of these jigs and ideas had even been seen by his son Liam...I hope I am that active when I am retired.