1890 Antonio de Torres "SE 139" PI/MP

This 1890 Antonio de Torres is a classical guitar with a pine soundboard and bird's-eye maple back and sides, numbered SE 139 – a late second-epoch Torres from Almería, built two years before his death.

In the video above, Taso Comanescu plays Tárrega's "Adelita" on this guitar.

SE 139: Originally More Than Six Strings

This particular instrument is a fantastic example of an incredibly well-preserved bird's-eye maple guitar from 1890, numbered by the maker as No. 139 of the "Segunda Época" on its label. We believe the guitar was originally made for more than 6 strings (exactly how many we are no longer able to tell) and converted to a 6-string early in its life. The largest piece of evidence for this conversion is in the head itself, where there are traces of filled holes where wooden tuning pegs would originally have been fitted, and a previous attempt at cutting slots for machines that was redone.

A Torres with a Pine Top

Of notable interest, the soundboard is made entirely of pine. Torres was known to use pine for internal parts (the fans and lining, for example), but there are few known instruments with pine tops like this one. One other notable pine-top Torres (also with maple back and sides) is owned by Pepe Romero, who recorded an absolutely sublime album with it – guitar and piano duos of sonatas by Carulli and Diabelli.

Sound

The sound of SE 139 has the richness and harmonious quality found in other top examples from this incredible maker. Listening to it, one marvels at how beautiful the actual sound itself is, and at how the notes blend together and yet keep their clarity and separation. The sensation of playing it is unlike any other, as it vibrates against the player's body in a very deep way that is peculiar to Torres – a tremendous experience, confirmed by all who see and hear the Torres guitars (especially in this kind of very original condition) that come through our shop.

More on Antonio de 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.