When a Masterpiece Is Born, the majority of these specialized tools are used for its creation. And almost all these tools were made exclusively for guitar construction. My friend and “guitarrero”, Lazarus, has inherited all the tools from his deceased brother, called the Sabre, also a very famous artist and a guitar maker. Sabre founded this shop with Maestro Brana, also an awarded artist who works with Lazarus until today…
This “taller” (workshop) with Lazarus, continues to make guitars for over 4 decades now. The SabMar classical guitars are being played on over 50 conservatories all over the world. And this new masterpiece is born now – the Romanian spruce and Spanish cypress flamenco guitar.
You can’t get this quality flamenco guitar anywhere in Spain today. Even after they see that I am a virtuoso and that I dedicated my whole life to music, when I enter any guitar workshop in Spain, I hit a Great Wall Of China. Every salesman in every “taller” will first take out and show you 20 of his guitars, which are all produced in exactly the same way but are all – much worse than this. Their price will be in exes of 5000 EUR, and NOT ONE will sound like this. Not because they don’t have them. Yes they do, every guitar maker has instruments made from the best wood possible, but those guitars are not for regular sale. When their new masterpiece is born, it goes to the special people, or for example to Japanese customers, that are willing to offer over 30 000 EUR for a guitar. There are probably around 20 guitarreros today to make these quality guitars, and all their instruments are made in this top quality way, in fact. But there is one little thing they surely won’t mention – they are not all made from this quality wood.
Just this quality wood, for construction of one single guitar, if some guitarrero would sell it to you, (and he won’t) would cost over 3000. Because he knows that with that wood, he can always make a guitar and sell it for over 5000. But you can not get this kind of wood, because almost nobody is selling it today, and there is maybe just 5 guitarreros in Spain today, to actually have wood of this quality. There is a big world wood crisis at present, but it’s a long story. Lazarus was fortunate to get this spruce wood for the front boards from Carpathian forests in Romania when he worked on the preservation of a medieval monastery there. The back and the sides are from a top quality Spanish cypress, purchased from a colleague guitarrero. Antonio de Torres Jurado – is the most important figure in the 19th century regarding guitar construction, and I can’t believe I found this article. This is the most historically important information on Spanish guitars, please look at what he discovered more than 150 years ago, so you’ll understand why this instrument is priceless.
Mr. Gerardo Nuñez also has one of Sabre guitars, the very same masterpiece flamenco model, but with wooden pegs. It looks cool, but it’s a nightmare for tuning. Many guitarists later take off the wooden pegs (probably use them for “cejillas”), and revert to the classical mechanism, the design allows it.
Lazarus says the same thing as Cristina Y Enrique Ramirez the 5th, that this is a technique, not an art. I think that he exaggerates when trying to demystify the process – this is definitely an art – just the same as playing the guitar. So, nothing mystical about it, anyway…
All these cutouts are from all the guitar front boards that Lazarus made in the last 20 years. This new masterpiece is born surpassed all expectations again. It’s because of the guitar wood, of course, he says. After a few years of playing, this guitar will sound better still. The tone has the body of a classical guitar, and the sharpness of a flamenco guitar, so inspiring, it’s just perfect. These strings are some low tension Savarez, (a terrible set from a not much better factory, they behave like chewing gums, by the way). I can just imagine it with some hi-quality medium-high tension flamenco strings, it would sound louder still..?!? So well made, that you almost don’t see the transparent golpe protection, I would trade my guitar for it without a blink. I’m sad to let such a great instrument go, but he needs the money. To make others, he says…