2002 Géza Burghardt "Grand Concert - dedicated to JL Romanillos" SP/CSAR

This 2002 Géza Burghardt “Grand Concert” is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Vancouver, Canada, as a personal tribute to the Spanish-born master who shaped his work.

Built for José Romanillos’s 70th Birthday

This guitar is unique in that it was built for José Romanillos’s 70th birthday, which Géza attended in Sigüenza, Spain – and Pepe Romero Sr. performed on this very guitar at the party! Inside, on the tongue of the heel, is a silver plaque engraved by a local silversmith near Géza’s workshop in Vancouver. It reads: “Para Maestro José Romanillos – Mis agradecimientos por vuestra gran influencia e inspiración – Géza Burghardt” (“To Maestro José Romanillos – my thanks for your great influence and inspiration”). The plaque expresses both his admiration for Romanillos’s contribution to classical guitar culture and their long friendship, which began in Budapest in 1983.

Rosette and Workmanship

As with his other “Grand Concert” guitars, the mosaic of the rosette tips its hat to the “Cumbre” guitar (FE 08) of Antonio de Torres: a checkered pattern alternating with mother-of-pearl inlays. High-grade materials and elegant design work run through the whole instrument.

Sound, Condition and Video

The sound is lush and smooth, with that loose, relaxed, played-in quality – warm trebles and plump basses. The guitar is in excellent condition for its age: no cracks, damage or repairs, only some minor wear in the finish. In the video above, Luigi Attademo plays Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Étude No. 8 on this 2002 Burghardt. A wonderful guitar in every regard – and with such a touching backstory.

Géza Burghardt: From Budapest to Vancouver

Géza Burghardt is the top builder of traditional classical guitars to emerge from Hungary. He learned to work wood entirely by hand, apprenticing as a pattern maker at the age of fourteen, and went on to build boats – racing shells, kayaks and canoes – before turning to the guitar. He earned his master’s certificate in Budapest in 1981 and opened his own shop there that same year.

The Influence of José Romanillos

In 1983 Géza met José Romanillos in Budapest, the beginning of a friendship and an influence that would last for decades. His guitars follow the Spanish tradition of Antonio de Torres and Romanillos: the neck joins the head with a V-joint cut entirely by hand, each rosette is made individually, and every guitar is French polished, never sprayed – his French polish is considered among the finest in British Columbia.

A Workshop on Granville Island

In 1984 Géza and his wife Tini left Hungary, and after about four years in an Austrian immigration camp they arrived in Vancouver, Canada, in April 1988. He first ran the string repair shop at Ward Music, and in the mid-1990s he opened his own workshop on Granville Island. Besides classical guitars he has built violins, cellos and double basses, restored instruments for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and mentored several Vancouver luthiers.