1887 Antonio de Torres "SE 105" SP/MH

This 1887 Antonio de Torres is a spruce and mahogany classical guitar from Almería, numbered SE 105 – a medium-sized, five-fan Torres from the year before Tárrega's SE 114, restored by Gabriele Lodi.

In the video above, Taso Comanescu plays Dilermando Reis' "Eterna Saudade" on this guitar.

SE 105: A Second-Epoch Masterpiece

Built the year before Francisco Tárrega's favorite Torres guitar, SE 114, this guitar – No. 105 of the "Segunda Época", as Torres wrote by hand on its label – is one of the great masterpieces of his output for its quality of sound, condition and historical importance. 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. This instrument is truly a marvel of guitar making history.

Sound and Playability

It's a medium-sized guitar, braced with 5 fans and with a shorter scale, so very comfortable and easy to play – it was also re-fretted recently, and the fresh setup makes it play with maximum ease. It has an amazing, full sound, very rich with great texture in every note, but also very clear. It has a sensitive dynamic range and color palette, so it's incredibly easy to separate melody lines from accompaniment and bass parts – the guitar is simply very friendly to the hands and almost plays by itself.

Condition and Repairs by Gabriele Lodi

It is in extremely well-preserved condition. It did have some recent repair work done by Gabriele Lodi in Italy who, in our opinion, is rapidly becoming one of the most experienced and expert repairmen in the world for Torres. There were some repairs to the sides, which are now completely invisible, both inside and outside. The single small back crack now has a mahogany patch internally to reinforce it. The soundboard has no cracks and no repairs – making this perhaps the most well-preserved Torres to have passed through our doors.

Interestingly, there are a few knots in the grain of the back that have small cleats supporting them from the underside – but these were installed originally by Torres and are not a later addition. It seems Torres was concerned that these might develop into cracks; however, after over 135 years, they've remained stable. Amazing foresight, and yet another example of the genius of Torres! At some point in its past we believe it was converted from pegs to machines (the current machines are commonly seen on instruments made in Barcelona in the 1920s–1930s). Whoever did the conversion did a very authentic job, making the squared ramps and proportions of the slots as if Torres did it himself. Overall this is a rare, beautiful and outstanding example of Torres at his best.

More on Antonio de Torres

To learn more about the master of Seville and Almería, read our Antonio de Torres biography, The Torres Sound – an excerpt from José Luis Romanillos's book "Antonio de Torres" – and Pepe Romero on Torres, his 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.