2024 Pepe Romero "Negra y Blanca" SP/CSAR

Made by the son of the great guitarist of the same name. This flamenco guitar has huge volume and extremely quick response, much in the style of the lightweight Spanish flamencos of the first half of the twentieth century. For this guitar, which Pepe calls "La Negra y Blanca", he has sought to fuse the best of the two flamenco worlds into one guitar - by using CSA rosewood on the exterior of the body, he captures the bullet-like focus of the fundamental of each note as is found in flamenca negras - with cypress on the interior to add fast-responding, raspy and old-world charm that is normally found in flamenco blancas.

Since his 170th instrument, Pepe has adopted a reverse fan system (fans radiating from the bridge area, rather than from the soundhole) for his standard model after studying an early 1970's Rodriguez with this very system - indeed this guitar has cedar fans under the spruce top. Pepe feels this opens the instrument up, and gives it a unique distinctive quality of sound that appeals greatly to his sense of style. Additionally for this guitar, Pepe has a "raised" soundhole - making the 19th fret extend over the soundhole which enlarges the main vibrating area of the top below the soundhole, making for a deeper, more resonant body. Pepe did this in an effort to make a 650mm scale have the same full, rich sound that he finds in his 660mm guitars. Tuners are authentic Fusteros, which are very hard to find these days. This guitar also features a beautiful set of aged CSA rosewood for the back and sides (taken from Yuris Zeltins' stock which he purchased in the early 1960s) which is absolutely stunning.

Pepe's guitars are played by a score of professionals including members of his family but it is especially worth mentioning that Paco de Lucia used a 2012 Pepe Romero guitar for part of his final album "Canción Andaluza", recorded just prior to his untimely passing in 2014. Upon receiving his, Paco said that he felt enchanted by the guitar. He loved the round sound, thought that it felt great in his hands and tuned great.

Orfeo Magazine No. 10 - West Coast Luthiers