Jose Romanillos "Making a Spanish Guitar" now available

[Fisherman]

Hi all

This evening I placed an order for Jose Romanillos's new method book, "Making a Spanish Guitar". There has been a bit of talk elsewhere about this book but I haven't noticed anything on this forum, so thought I'd mention it's available.

To purchase, you send an email to Jose's email address on his website (the email beginning violeriasiguenza...) and request the book, then he sends you payment instructions etc (it is not yet advertised on the website). Cost is 70 euros, which works out at 106 euros including postage downunder. Apparently Sr Romanillos and his wife are handling the orders themselves to save money all round, making trips to the post office etc, so a bit of patience is required.

Just receiving an email from the great man was quite a thrill for this novice builder!

[simonm]

There is now a new Romanillos site just for the books. http://www.romanillosguitarbooks.com
I ordered mine the email way a while back. It's in the post but hasn't arrived yet.

[charangohabsburg]

I have my copy.

In the Spanish forum of guitarra.artepulsado.com, my friend Carlos Juan Busquiel put up a short review of the book: here. Not sure how it turns out if you run the page through translate.google.com, but the two or three pictures will still be the same.

[Nick]

Didn't come out too bad Markus, apart from the odd wrong word it still reads reasonably cohesively.

The Translation=

"Making a Spanish Guitar" is the title of Jose Luis Romanillos book recently published in which the author leaves shaped his approach to the construction of a Spanish guitar. As acknowledged in the introduction, this book has its origins in 1961, when following the instructions of a simple book , Romanillos built his first guitar at your kitchen table . And begins to tell us how you got started in the world of violería to continue by describing what steps to follow to build a guitar , enriching the text with numerous anecdotes and reflections that we are discovering the approach and philosophy of his work.


The book is divided into chapters that processes sharpening tools , creating templates , building different parts of the guitar, the guitar assembly and varnishing of the instrument are discussed . All accompanied by photographs and drawings illustrating the different processes . In addition we also find a section with color photographs of the author rosettes and guitars , and two appendices . In one José Luis Romanillos explains what criteria to follow when selecting wood for the soundboard. In the second appendix photographs and descriptions of tools and equipment referred to in the text is. The last pages of the book are designed to enumerate the different query data , such as literature , the author of books and articles , catalogs , interviews, book reviews, offered courses and lectures , exhibitions and various media appearances , recordings made with their guitars , and an index of proper names and technical terms in the book.


Next to book a separate sheet with full-scale drawings of the floor and two Romanillos guitars included . One based on the guitar he built for Julian Bream in 1973 , and the other based on a guitar by Antonio de Torres 1885. These planes nicely complement the drawings and explanations in the book, and essential to anyone who wants to build a guitar using the method described .


Beyond being a manual with descriptions and explanations , the value of this book is that José Luis Romanillos tells not only what their current methods, but also how you got them through his self-taught , even describing previous techniques have been abandoned to make way for new ways of working . The author insists on the use of hand tools and justifies transmitting to each page how enjoys performing each step of the process with them and how in his garage have accumulated some ineffective and too noisy appliances. It is particularly in the method presented the detailed instructions for conducting the joint between the handle and the blade assembly method for the dovetail , or joining in V , and a chapter devoted to the construction of spikelets and the unmistakable rosette Romanillos , with great detail on wood to use and steps to recreate the famous arches of the Mezquita of Cordoba.


In the author's words , " one thing is guaranteed for those who decide to embark on building a guitar using this book, the experience will be unforgettable."

Although I'm not too sure why you'd want a full scale drawing of his floor, but nevermind

[charangohabsburg]

Didn't come out too bad Markus, apart from the odd wrong word it still reads reasonably cohesively.

The Translation=

"Making a Spanish Guitar" is [...] Romanillos built his first guitar at your kitchen table .

Yes, Google translator really rocks. So Romanillos built his first guitar on my kitchen table! Or was it your's? However, good to know!

[simonm]

Got mine today! Delighted so far.

[kiwigeo]

Mine ordered.....I cant justify NOT buying this book.

[charangohabsburg]

Overdue: the book's index.

Click on the picture to enlarge the index to readable size

Also overdue: my opinion on this book.

As you can see in the index, pages 27 to 130 are dedicated to the description of how to make a guitar. These are roughly 100 pages, so what about the other 120 pages? They are mostly "used up" by the appendices and they include a lot of stuff that have to do with Romanillo's "work and life" rather than with the book's title. Amongst the most important parts of the appendices are the pictures of the jigs that Romanillos uses. I would have liked to see these photos in the text of the book, but he only refers to "Appendix II", and then one can search for the right picture in the 20 pages where it must be. I also find it a bit awkward that many of these pictures are taken from a not very favorable perspective to appreciate how the jig really is, many of these pictures are just too tiny to appreciate details I would like to see, and quite a few photos turned out just too dark in print which also does not help easy understanding of the jig's functioning - and I believe that I am not the dumbest man on earth when it comes to understanding how a relatively simple tool works...

However, I find the 100 relevant pages of this book together with the information I found in the plan of great value, because I get to see to a great extent how Romanillos built and still builds his guitars. This is the only reason why I really like this book and why I indeed appreciate that Romanillos has made the effort to publish it.

Sometimes I didn't find it easy to understand what he writes, but after re-reading some passages several times I almost always managed to follow his thoughts. Slipping in less anecdotes maybe could have helped keeping things clearer, at least for readers like me, whose mother tongue is not English... I also found some very interesting details in the plan that comes with the book. When the book arrived, the first thing I did was looking at the plan, and it immediately became obvious to me how great the influence of Hauser was on Romanillos.

[kiwigeo]

I agree with your comments Markus. Jose signed the frontspiece of my book along with a really nice message so just for that alone it gets a spot in my book case