2018 Daryl Perry No. 227 "1888 Torres, ex Tárrega" SP/CSAR

This 2018 Daryl Perry No. 227 is a spruce and CSA rosewood copy of the 1888 Antonio de Torres SE 114 – the guitar of Francisco Tárrega.

A Copy of Tárrega’s SE 114

SE 114 is the guitar famously photographed in Tárrega’s hands (the Soneto poster), now in the collection of Sheldon Urlik. Daryl studied it at length in 1997, when it belonged to Elías Barreiro of New Orleans, but made his first copy only two decades later – perhaps inspired by the 200th anniversary of Torres’ birth in 2017, or, as he told us, by the question “if not now, when?” Unlike most of his work it was not made to order, and as far as we know he has not built another – so it may well be unique in his output. The label is numbered 227.

Sound and Materials

The sound is lush, warm and loose, like a great Torres that has been well played and aged; the body resonance is F#, giving deep basses and open trebles. A dark, aged spruce top is paired with CSA rosewood for the three-piece back, sides, bridge and head plate, and the nickel-silver Rodgers tuners with bone buttons are close to the gears Daryl saw on the original. Thu Le plays Jobim’s “Felicidade” on it in the video above.

Daryl Perry: Canada’s Master of the Torres Tradition

Canadian luthier Daryl Perry has been a full-time guitar maker in Winnipeg since 1982, and his son Jesse now works with him in the workshop. Early in his career he was introduced to the ideas of the Torres–Hauser school through José Luis Romanillos, and he has worked with them ever since, building concert guitars and historical reproductions with no carbon fiber, one sound hole and one soundboard.

Lutes, Research and Concert Artists

Grants for his work allowed him to do historical research in Europe and North America, and he has also built Renaissance and Baroque lutes. In 1994 two of his guitars were shown at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. Fábio Zanon, Marcin Dylla, Johan Fostier, Jérôme Ducharme and Paolo Pegoraro have performed on Perry guitars, and Roland Dyens recorded “Sor and Giuliani” (2006) and “Naguele Tempo” (2008) on one.