2009 Kenny Hill "Torres" SP/IN

This 2009 Kenny Hill "Torres" is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides from his Master Series, modeled on an 1856 Antonio de Torres that Kenny was able to evaluate and inspect.

Based on an 1856 Torres

Antonio de Torres, the "father of the modern guitar", was the first to establish most of the design principles that set the standard for virtually every guitar maker after him. This guitar is based on a first-epoch Torres built in Sevilla in 1856, which Kenny had the opportunity to evaluate and inspect. It has the classic Torres 7-fan bracing and a beautiful body shape, slightly smaller than today's standard.

Rosette and Sound

The rosette is elegant, in natural black and white, with soundboard purflings of matching elements. The sound is strong, with singing highs and a solid bass – ideal for players seeking a smaller instrument, but with a full concert sound.

Kenny Hill: Guitarist and Guitar Maker

Kenny Hill was born in San Jose, California, and is a performing guitarist and composer as well as a guitar maker. Largely self-taught, he began building guitars professionally in the 1970s in Santa Barbara. In the 1980s he set guitar making aside to raise his four children – though he never stopped performing – and in 1989 he returned to the workbench with copies of historic instruments by Torres, Fleta, Hauser, Rodríguez and Panormo: the beginning of his "Master Series".

From Soledad and Paracho to the Santa Cruz Mountains

In 1993 a grant allowed Kenny to set up a guitar-building shop at Soledad State Prison in California. Two years later he traveled to Paracho, Mexico, as a writer for Acoustic Guitar magazine, to cover a master class led by José Luis Romanillos, and in 1996 he established a workshop there, spending five years building a market for Paracho's guitars. Out of this work grew workshops in California, Mexico and China: his "New World" guitars are made in Guangzhou, China, in a factory of which he is a founding shareholder, and he is designer emeritus and a long-time consultant for Cordoba Guitars.

Kenny's own Signature and Performance models – with double tops, lattice bracing and sound ports – are built by hand in his workshop in Ben Lomond, in the mountains near Santa Cruz, California, by a team of about six craftsmen that includes his son and son-in-law. In 2015 the Guitar Foundation of America honored him with its Industry Leadership Award.

Kenny Hill Guitars at GSI

Many Kenny Hill guitars have passed through our doors, from his Master Series replicas of the great historical makers to his modern Signature and Performance models.