1888 Antonio de Torres "SE 114" SP/CSAR (ex Francisco Tárrega)

This 1888 Antonio de Torres "SE 114" is a spruce and CSA rosewood classical guitar from Almería – the last of Francisco Tárrega's three Torres guitars, loaned to GSI by Sheldon Urlik and reunited here with the other two.

In the videos above, Pepe Romero plays Tárrega's "Capricho Árabe" and "Lágrima", Matthew Greif plays "Oremus", Bill Kanengiser plays "Sueño", Andrew York plays "Dancing With Maya", "Poem No. 6" and "Annie's Song", and Jacob Kellermann plays Mendelssohn's "Andante Sostenuto" on this guitar. The LAGQ also plays it in three quartets recorded on four Torres guitars, including all three ex Tárrega.

Built for Francisco Tárrega

This instrument, built in 1888 and numbered 114 in Torres' "Segunda Época" – the number is written by hand on its label – was built for the great Francisco Tárrega and was the 3rd of 3 Torres guitars that Tárrega would own in his lifetime. After Tárrega's death in 1909, "SE 114" would be the second of the 3 Torres to be sold by his family, in 1920, when it was purchased by José de Jesús González for his daughter, Margarita González García, in Cuba. 45 years later, the guitar was sold to the Cuban guitarist Elías Barreiro, who would keep it in his possession until 2000, when it was sold to its current owner, Sheldon Urlik, who generously loaned the guitar to GSI so it could be reunited with the other two Torres guitars of Tárrega, after over 100 years of separation!

The Famous Photograph of Tárrega

This guitar has been famously captured in a historic photograph (now available as a poster by SONETO) and will be very familiar to many guitar aficionados who have it adorning the walls of their homes, studies or workplaces.

Restoration by Jeffrey Elliott

The instrument is in excellent playing condition, the most recent restoration work carried out by luthier Jeffrey Elliott, who completed the work in 2002, documenting it both in writing and in published plans for the Guild of American Luthiers. His repairs were intended to stabilize and preserve the instrument without altering any of the original elements intended by Torres. We were delighted in particular with its ease of play for both hands and how, with minimal effort, the player can draw out the deep basses, sparkling trebles and singing mids that make this such a spectacular instrument – indeed, by the time of Tárrega's passing, this was known to be his favorite guitar.

Sound

As with all great Torres, words are simply inadequate in describing just how rich and harmonious the sound is – whether in the beauty of single pitches in a melodic phrase or in the blended fusion of notes in counterpoint or chordal harmony. And there is also the other-worldly sensation of playing the guitar as it vibrates against the player's body – a tremendous experience which is only possible with an instrument such as this in one's bosom. We were all amazed to have it in our showroom here at GSI for the purpose of demonstrating, filming and showcasing it, hoping to do justice to its legacy as one of the foundational instruments in the history of the classical guitar.

Again, special thanks to Sheldon Urlik for loaning it to us, and also to Federico Sheppard for generously taking the time to transport it to our showroom in Santa Monica.

More on Antonio de Torres

Torres' life is told in our short biography, and José Luis Romanillos's book "Antonio de Torres" explains his sound in this excerpt. Pepe Romero shares his own experience of these guitars in an interview with Kenny Hill. Also see Orfeo Magazine #9 – The 200th Anniversary of Antonio de Torres.

Antonio de Torres: The Stradivari of the Guitar

The name of Antonio de Torres (1817–1892) is to guitarists what the name of Antonio Stradivari is to violinists. Taken as a whole, the corpus of instruments made by this legendary maker's hand is today regarded as the foundational basis of the modern guitar. The impact that these guitars made on successive generations of luthiers is impossible to exaggerate – still to this day, most or nearly all of Torres' structural and tonal improvements are in use by all top contemporary builders.

The First and Second Epochs: Seville and Almería

Torres built his first great guitars in Seville, from the 1850s to about 1870 – his "first epoch", when his labels read "Calle de la Cerrajería, número 32". After some years away from the bench he took up guitar making again in his native Almería in 1875, and from then until his death in 1892 his labels say "Segunda Época", usually with the guitar's number written in by hand. In his biography of the maker, José Luis Romanillos catalogued the surviving instruments by these two periods, which is why Torres guitars are known today by numbers such as "FE 17" (first epoch) or "SE 114" (second epoch).

Played by Tárrega – and by Today's Artists

In Torres' own day, the leading players such as Julián Arcas and Francisco Tárrega were already performing on his masterpieces, and successive generations of players over the 20th century continued to play them. Although increasing values over the past several decades have placed them largely within the sphere of collectors, they are still highly desirable to leading professional players and occasionally make their way into the recording studio or even the concert stage. Pepe Romero, Stefano Grondona, Wulfin Lieske and Marc Teicholz, among others, have brought them to life in recorded and live sound, and we all hope this trend continues in the future, especially as more Torres instruments come to the public's attention.