1878 Antonio de Torres "SE 14" SP/CY

This 1878 Antonio de Torres is a spruce and cypress guitar from Almería, numbered SE 14 – one of the early guitars of his second epoch, restored by Yuris Zeltins.

In the videos above, GSI's Chris Garwood gives a first look at this guitar, and – in footage from Guitarrada II (2005) – Pepe Romero plays Luis Milán, Marc Teicholz plays Fernando Sor and Richard Bruné talks about it.

SE 14, Built in Almería in 1878

Built during Torres' second epoch, this guitar is numbered by its maker as No. 14 on the label – the version that reads "D. Antonio de Torres, constructor de guitarras en Sevilla, vive hoy en Almería, Calle Real, Nº 23", with "Guitarra núm. 14, 2.ª época" written in by hand. It is the work of a master returning to his craft, a few years after he took up guitar making again in Almería.

Sound

As is the case with every Torres we've seen, words continue to be inadequate when trying to describe the sound. The trebles have an intoxicating, "velvety" and multi-dimensional texture, and it is remarkable just how sensitive each note is to the slightest change in right-hand position – allowing for a wide variety of color and expressivity. The basses are wide and deep with a rich, sonorous bottom end, also with great lyrical charm and character. When evaluating the sound of a guitar like this, it's difficult to tell where the genius of Torres ends and the accumulated years of being played by great artists begins.

Restoration and Playability

Nearly 20 years ago Yuris Zeltins performed a fantastic repair job on the instrument, restoring it to concert-playing and recording condition. A guitar cannot be easier to play than this – it truly plays "like butter". It's almost as if the player simply thinks of the music, places a hand over the strings, and voilà – the music magically sings from the guitar.

A Torres for Classical and Flamenco

This is also a great example of a cypress instrument that is equally at home with classical repertoire and sound as with flamenco – very versatile in what it can do. It is truly a marvel and a further testament to the sublime acumen of its builder, the founding father of the modern classical and flamenco guitar.

Further Reading on Torres

For more on the life of Antonio de Torres, be sure to read his biography and this excerpt about the Torres sound from José Luis Romanillos's book "Antonio de Torres". We also have an interview between Pepe Romero and Kenny Hill about the master luthier. Also see Orfeo Magazine #9 – The 200th Anniversary of Antonio de Torres.

Antonio de Torres: The Stradivari of the Guitar

The name of Antonio de Torres (1817–1892) is to guitarists what the name of Antonio Stradivari is to violinists. Taken as a whole, the corpus of instruments made by this legendary maker's hand is today regarded as the foundational basis of the modern guitar. The impact that these guitars made on successive generations of luthiers is impossible to exaggerate – still to this day, most or nearly all of Torres' structural and tonal improvements are in use by all top contemporary builders.

The First and Second Epochs: Seville and Almería

Torres built his first great guitars in Seville, from the 1850s to about 1870 – his "first epoch", when his labels read "Calle de la Cerrajería, número 32". After some years away from the bench he took up guitar making again in his native Almería in 1875, and from then until his death in 1892 his labels say "Segunda Época", usually with the guitar's number written in by hand. In his biography of the maker, José Luis Romanillos catalogued the surviving instruments by these two periods, which is why Torres guitars are known today by numbers such as "FE 17" (first epoch) or "SE 114" (second epoch).

Played by Tárrega – and by Today's Artists

In Torres' own day, the leading players such as Julián Arcas and Francisco Tárrega were already performing on his masterpieces, and successive generations of players over the 20th century continued to play them. Although increasing values over the past several decades have placed them largely within the sphere of collectors, they are still highly desirable to leading professional players and occasionally make their way into the recording studio or even the concert stage. Pepe Romero, Stefano Grondona, Wulfin Lieske and Marc Teicholz, among others, have brought them to life in recorded and live sound, and we all hope this trend continues in the future, especially as more Torres instruments come to the public's attention.