2017 Thomas Norwood "Torres SE 69" SP/MP

This 2017 Thomas Norwood “Torres SE 69” is a spruce and maple classical guitar with pegs – a maple version of his replica of the 1884 Antonio de Torres SE 69.

Norwood’s Torres

For years people asked Tom to copy a Torres, but he only did so after he played SE 69 – “I loved the 1884 Torres SE 69 from the moment I touched it,” he told Orfeo – and he was able to study it at length, since its owner was a collector and a friend. This was the first Norwood “Torres” we had seen, after his Manuel Ramírez, Esteso and Santos models. The label reads “Thomas Norwood, Luthier à Paris, Année 2017”.

Sound and Pegs

Lightweight in build, it is incredibly energetic and friendly to the player’s hands: the sound is immediate, jumps out of the box with minimal effort and captures the old-world charm of great Torres guitars. It is fitted with old-school wooden pegs, and the oil-finished head grips them well, making them very easy to use.

Read more: Orfeo Magazine No. 7 – An American in Paris: Thomas Norwood – also available in print in the collected edition Orfeo Magazine 6–10:

Orfeo Magazine 6-10 (print)

Thomas Norwood: An American in Paris

Thomas Norwood (died 2021) was born in Pasadena, California, and taught himself guitar making from Irving Sloane’s book “Classic Guitar Construction”. He fell in love with Paris on a bicycle tour of Europe and settled there in the mid-1970s, visiting the workshops of Daniel Friederich and Daniel Lesueur; Friederich became a close friend and recommended Tom’s guitars to GSI. He built in his atelier in the heart of Paris for over 40 years.

Replicas of the Spanish Golden Age

Besides lutes, Baroque guitars and hurdy-gurdies – he was considered one of the best balalaika makers outside Russia – Norwood made a model of his own and four replicas of the Spanish golden age: Antonio de Torres, Manuel Ramírez, Domingo Esteso and Santos Hernández. Each began as an exact copy of one original, built to sound as it would have when new; only later did he make small changes to the bracing to improve the occasional weaker note.