2020 Gabriele Lodi "Torres" SP/CSAR

Italian luthier Gabriele Lodi comes from a family of classical guitar makers, happily spending the majority of his childhood helping out in his father's workshop. By the age of 20, he had officially made guitar making his profession and began to focus on his fascination with historical instruments. Because of this interest, many of his guitars today are strongly rooted in traditional design and aesthetic.

This instrument is one of Gabriele's tributes to the great Antonio de Torres, who has in the last many years become a primary driving force in Gabriele's work as a restorer, historian and of course, as a builder. Gabriele has restored several important original Torres instruments, and along the way, captured some insights from the hand of Torres that have led him to explore his own innovative ideas to continue what he sees as his own steps to forward the Torres tradition into the modern day. In this series of instruments Gabriele loving calls "My Torres Interpretation" (each guitar unique - never the same guitar built twice), he builds a strongly Torres-inspired instrument but never a literal copy. Each instrument draws strongly from various Torres guitars he has seen and worked on, but he also seeks to bridge the "old-world" (gut string) with the modern era (nylon string) to produce a fully modern instrument that can be appreciated and played by any contemporary player. This is done by building a guitar that is capbable of producing not only the power and projection needed for the concert stage, but also an instrument that has old-world subtlety, refinement of tone and maximal expressiveness. Gabriele is particularly focused on producing a guitar with a huge color palette and great dynamic range, much like the old Spanish guitars and in particular of Torres. And from the many guitars we've seen of Gabriele, he's done it. This guitar has the charm, spirit and musical expressivity that many modern instruments lack, yet still has the power and projection that modern players have come to expect.

As much as Gabriele focuses on the sonic and responsive qualities of the guitar, he also has a flair for aesthetics. His taste in detailing is exquisite and his craftsmanship is second-to-none. The inlays, purflings are largely drawn from various Torres instruments but assembled to Gabriele's fine taste. This is an exquisitely built instrument with no detail overlooked, and although "used" is in mint, like-new condition. We believe Torres himself would be astonished and proud to see his legacy being carried out, more than a century after his death by the important work of many makers such as Gabriele, and in particular with this instrument. Our congratulations to Gabriele on what can only be considered nothing short of yet another masterpiece!

Orfeo Magazine #13 – Lodi, Bottelli, Coriani, Peruffo