1961 Robert Bouchet SP/CSAR

This 1961 Robert Bouchet is a spruce and CSA rosewood classical guitar from Paris – from the Russell Cleveland collection, and shown with Bouchet's own first guitar in "The Classical Guitar – A Complete History".

In the videos above, Peter Fletcher plays Scriabin's Prelude Op. 16 No. 4 and the Courante from Bach's BWV 1009 on this guitar.

From the Russell Cleveland Collection

This guitar comes from the Russell Cleveland collection and is featured on pages 48-49 of the book "The Classical Guitar – A Complete History", in its pages on Bouchet, together with our 1946 Bouchet No. 1, the very first guitar he made.

Later Style: the Lateral Brace

This guitar is built in Bouchet's later style, with his innovative "lateral" brace passing beneath the saddle-side of the bridge, notched for the 5 fan struts, the outermost two of which run beneath the lower harmonic bar. The design noticeably increases sustain, dynamic range and tonal color/modulation – very much so in this guitar.

Sound

Its dreamy, elegantly beautiful sound is very hard to describe: quite powerful and robust, yet with an almost "creamy" texture that makes playing it an intoxicating and other-worldly experience. A top example of a great Bouchet from this period.

Robert Bouchet: From Painter to Guitar Maker

Robert Bouchet (1898–1986) was a Paris painter who became one of the most influential guitar makers of the twentieth century and the founding father of what is called today the "French school of guitar making". He took up the guitar in 1932 and became a friend of Julián Gómez Ramírez, a Spanish maker in Paris trained in the José Ramírez I workshop in Madrid, whose workshop he often visited. When he lost the guitar Gómez Ramírez had made for him, he decided to build one himself – in 1946, at the age of 48. In all he made only 154 instruments.

Founder of the French School

Bouchet's reputation quickly attracted some of the greatest players to his workshop: Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya, Emilio Pujol, Oscar Ghiglia, Turíbio Santos, Manuel López Ramos and Julian Bream. His innovations, including the famous "barre d'âme" in the soundboard bracing, left a lasting mark on guitar making, and the guitars of Daniel Friederich and many later French makers grew from his school. Bouchets are in the top tier of collectible classical guitars, along with Antonio de Torres and Hermann Hauser I.

Books on Robert Bouchet

Alberto Martínez's bilingual book is the most complete look at Bouchet's life and work, and a 1959 Bouchet is among the guitars shown in Orfeo's "34 Classical Guitars in Life Size":

Robert Bouchet 1898-1986: Peintre & Luthier

Orfeo – 34 Classical Guitars in Life Size