Flamenco Guitars
In a guitar shop in Madrid I once played a flamenco guitar made by Santos Hernández, who is considered to have been the greatest builder of flamenco guitars ever. It was a small, very light-weight guitar, apparently not being very well taken care of--it was kept standing on the floor leaning against a wall. But I will never forget the extraordinary sound and playability of that guitar: It was so responsive that it seemed to almost play itself. That responsiveness has been the ideal towards which I strive in my flamenco guitar building.
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I generally make flamenco guitars using
Spanish cypress for the back and sides (or
Monterey cypress, Port Orford cedar, or maple--please see About Wood for Backs and
Sides),
Engelmann spruce
for soundboards and fan bracing, Spanish cedar for necks, ebony for
fingerboards, rosewood for bridges—which
have
tie-blocks trimmed with bone and sometimes marquetry related to the
rosette—a 656-mm scale length. Although lyre style Schaller
tuners are shown here, my standard models of flamenco guitars now have Pegheds mechanical
tuners, which look like traditional wooden pegs but function perfectly. Each rosette
is usually unique,
although patterns can be repeated. Any of these specifications
can be
changed (such as using Western red cedar for the soundboard) on a
custom order. French polish of shellac is my standard finish.
I also make flamencas negras, using rosewood (or other wood) for the backs and sides and I recently started using abalone shell in my flamenco rosettes:
Below are some videos of Ethan Deutsch flamenco guitars being played.