2012 Pepe Romero CD/CSAR (ex Vicente Coves)

Made by the son of the great guitarist of the same name. This guitar is part of a series Pepe has called "Centenario" in honor of the 100+ years since his grandfather, Celedonio Romero (also the patriarch of the Romero guitar dynasty) was born. These guitars feature Pepe's best and aged materials as well as elaborate detailing in the purfling, with a lovely rope pattern that frames the instrument beautifully. This particular instrument, no. 206 from 2012 is the sister guitar to the Romero instrument played by Paco de Lucia on his final album (#207) and was made especially for Spanish concert and recording artist Vicente Coves who has been its only owner to date. Vicente has recorded this guitar on 4 CDs: Torroba concertos volumes 1 & 2 with Pepe Sr, Flute and guitar with Kazunori SEO (not yet released), and with the BBC Philharmonic performing the music of Manuel de Falla. For the Torroba Vol. 1, Pepe Romero Sr. used this very guitar to record some solos – you can hear it for all of the "Aires de la Mancha". This guitar also appears on Pepe Sr's "Live in Granada" DVD cover. Vicente concertized on this guitar quite a lot in solo and in concertos, including performances with the BBC Philharmonic, Malaga Philharmonic, Köln Camera Orchestra and others.

It has huge volume and extremely quick response. Although the tone is "classical", the response and playability is much like a southern Spanish flamenco guitar - likely due to its lightweight build, for its size. For many years now, these have been compared in this regard to the great instrument of Miguel Rodriguez. 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. Pepe feels this opens the instrument up, and gives it a unique distinctive quality of sound that appeals greatly to his sense of style. This guitar also features the use of a brass nut (which Pepe has used on every guitar starting with #200), which also adds an extra helping of clarity and brightness to the sound. Playability is very easy with a smooth neck and large, rounded frets. It is in fantastic condition with no cracks or repairs, only modest signs of use. NOTE: since this guitar was originally photographed, it now has two small dings behind the bridge. Otherwise the guitar looks the same as in the photos. This guitar has great sound, is gorgeous to look at, and has a great backstory and history.

Orfeo Magazine No. 10 - West Coast Luthiers