1886 Antonio de Torres "SE 99" SP/CY (Romero collection)

This 1886 Antonio de Torres is a spruce and cypress classical guitar from Almería, numbered SE 99, from the personal collection of Pepe Romero.

In the video above, Pepe Romero plays Francisco Tárrega's "Tango María" on this guitar.

From Pepe Romero's Collection

This instrument was one of six guitars from Pepe Romero's personal collection that were featured in a memorable event in the GSI showroom on June 1, 2013. These 6 instruments were chosen in particular since they are the key guitars that have most influenced his son, luthier Pepe Romero Jr., over the course of his life, both before and during his activity as a luthier.

Presented by Pepe Jr., Played by Scott Tennant

The guitars were presented by Pepe Jr. and played by none other than maestro Scott Tennant. This was about as personal a connection with these absolutely historic guitars as one could get, with background stories and information provided by Pepe Jr., who has studied these guitars intimately (and literally lived with them). And to have them played by Scott Tennant in a great-sounding intimate space made this a once-in-a-lifetime concert. Click here to see photos of the event.

SE 99 and More on Antonio de Torres

Its label is the Almería label of the second epoch, with "Segunda Época, nº 99" written in by Torres. Torres' life is told in our short biography, and José Luis Romanillos's book "Antonio de Torres" explains his sound in this excerpt. Pepe Romero shares his own experience of these guitars in an interview with Kenny Hill. 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.