Guitar Noise

Alan Garcia-Torre is a manufacturer of affordable classical concert guitars in France. With 40 years experience playing the instrument, Alan knows what he’s talking about when he talks about guitars.

As his new line is launching, I got in touch with him and asked him to answer some questions for us as far as building guitars goes.

Guitar Noise-When it comes time to design a new model, how do you go about it? What elements do you think about?

Alan Garcia-Torre-The elements are first of all a question of price range. Where do we want to be? After that we decide on the look we want. That also depends on one’s own construction capability. The sound quality is something else, it comes from the choice in harmony table.

GN-Could you take us through the overall process of constructing a guitar?

AGT-First is the choice of woods, that’s very important to position oneself at the level one has chosen.

Then comes the construction of the neck, molding on the shape of the sides, building of the bottom of the body, of the table with the gluing of the bars and the rosace, gluing of the neck on the sides, gluing of the table and the bottom onto the sides, installationg of borders, gluing of the fretboard, installation of the frets, of the neck.

Then the shooting of the varnish in fine layers with drying and sanding between each layer (at least three) and polishing.

There’s also the hand varnish, reserved to high-end guitares because it’s so long to do. It’s a varnish that penetrates better, but is, unfortunately, more fragile.

GN-How long does it take to construct one guitar?

AGT-Serial or not, it takes between three weeks and a month.

GN-From the moment when you decide to make a new model until it’s ready to ship, how much time has passed?

AGT-It’s quite variable. I’d say between six months and a year.

GN-Is there a lot of (if any) trial and error in the construction of a new model?

AGT-Yes, there are many trials to do to get what we want, but there again it’s quite variable. For my guitars, there were 12 trials.

GN-Please explain the importance of the woods used to construct a guitar.

AGT-The first thing is to have dry wood. Apart from some high-end luthiers who still have ancient woods, current woods are kiln-dried, which is certainly not as good, but indispensible for serial construction. It allows still to limit humidity to 5%. The wood of the table is primordial; it determines 90% of the sound of the guitare. We generally use Spruce or Cedar which each have their qualities and their problems, it’s a question of a person’s taste.

For the body, a nice pallissandre is generally appreciated.

For the neck, we use cedro or mahogany (rarer) and for the fingerboard, ebony. It’s possible to use other woods for lower-end guitars, it’s always a question of price since in the end, you have to sell them!

GN-A Classical guitar and an guitar (for metal strings) have

different constructions (different size necks, etc.) Why can’t a classical guitar be designed like an acoustic and vice-versa?

AGT-A guitar with steel strings and one with nylon strings exert a different tension; the table must therefore be reinforced differently, these guitars are therefore not interchangeable.

GN-One thing I’ve always wondered about: the shape of acoustic guitars. Except for cutaways, the basic model, shape, width, etc. is always the same. Would it be possible to construct an acoustic or classical guitar with a radically different shape that would still sound good?

AGT-It’s all in the definition of ‘good sound’. If it’s the sound of good modern guitars, you can’t change anything. Any modification in shape or material brings on a change in sound and that perturbs guitarists quite a lot (I have 15 years experience dealing with that problem!) It depends a lot also about celebrity guitarists playing a particular model.

GN-Since the early 20th Century, when the modern guitar came about, what have been the major innovations?

AGT-The modern guitar dates back to 1860 (the first Torres). It’s mostly in improvements of existing techniques. Construction remains, basically, the same as it was back then. I’m of course not talking about the electric guitar.

There was also the creation of polyurethane varnish and nylon strings around 1940, an important progress with previous strings.

GN-Considering the scarcity and price of good quality woods nowadays, where do you look to for materials to replace woods? Are you satisfied with them?

AGT-There’s a whole series of new materials possible for constructing guitars, but does it please guitarists? Maybe if you cover them with wood (which is already being done). But wood remains the most appreciated material for construction.

For satisfaction, it’s once again a matter of individual taste.

GN-When do you consider a guitar finished?

AGT-When the strings make it vibrate!

GN-With new guitars you construct, do you “lose” a few? mistakes in construction, bad wood, etc.

AGT-There’s no loss, at least not in small series. I’m not really familiar with factory building. The woods are well-known and there’s little difference between one guitar and the next withing the same category. The adjustment of the bridge for height and tension on the strings is extremely important for the fell and for the volume level.

Editor’s Note: Please accept in advance any mistakes I’ve made in either writing out the French or goofing on the English translation! And those of you with good bilingual skills, please feel free to write me and let me know what to correct! – David

You can find the original French Q&A here.