Torres was born in Spain near the town of Almeria.  He worked both in Seville
and Almeria.   

Torres is the guitar maker most responsible for the design of what we know
today as the classical guitar.     The early instruments had relatively small
bodies with transverse (cross wise) bracing across the top.  Torres introduced
a bigger body with wider bouts without making the guitar  heavier.  He also
established the fan-strutting brace structure we are familiar with today.  

His methods produced a tonally more wide-ranging guitar, in particular in the
bass, and his ideas were widely adopted in Spain as well as other regions
where guitars were made.

Francisco Tarrega, the great guitarist composer and teacher used Torres
instruments.  
Hauser I was based in Munich Germany.  He made a variety of early
instruments in an older non-Spanish style.  He was eventually influenced
by the work of Torres and Ramirez and made refinements to their styles.

Segovia had met Hauser at a concert and described to him what he
considered to be the ideal guitar.  More than a decade later Hauser
showed Segovia a guitar he built which met with the maestro's approval.  

Segovia played the Hauser guitar from the late '30's until 1970.  He was
known to refer to it as "the greatest guitar of our epoch".
Acoustic Haven Guitars of Austin offers a selection of fine handcrafted classical guitars
from some of today's leading contemporary builders.  Here you will find classical and
flamenco guitars from makers such as Alejandro Cervantes, Kenny Hill, Francisco
Navarro, Johnny Walker, and Pete Barthell.  Designs based of the old masters  
Hauser,
Torres, Ramirez, Smallman.  Please browse the site, email your comments or questions.
     Acoustic Haven Guitars of Austin
     
Fine Handcrafted Classical and Flamenco Guitars
Austin, Texas        By Appointment        512-697-9371       Contact Acoustic Haven
Sound Tops, & Tone Wood

From Websters Dictionary:
Tone:( noun)
1 : vocal or musical sound of a specific quality <spoke in low tones> <masculine tones>; especially : musical sound with  
respect to timbre and manner of expression
2 : a): a sound of definite pitch and vibration  b): WHOLE STEP
3 : accent or inflection expressive of a mood or emotion
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s all in the top.    Consider an audio speaker like one you might find in your home stereo.   As the speaker cone vibrates
back and forth in response to electrical signals from the amplifier, air directly in front of the speaker is made to vibrate in step
with the motion of the cone.  

This air vibration transfers sound from the speaker to your ear.  The tone - treble, bass, and midrange frequencies - are
controlled by the electronics in the amplifier and fine tuned to your liking by adjusting the related controls on the amplifier.

The guitar sound board, or top, works something like the speaker cone.  As you pluck the strings vibration is transferred by
the saddle and bridge to the guitar's top causing it vibrate.   Like the speaker cone, the vibrating wood moves air transferring
sound to your ear.  The quality of the wood, the type of wood (cedar or spruce for example), the finish, and the type of
bracing or strut support all play a role in the top’s resonance and response.  

The various sound qualities - bass, treble, projection, volume, sustain etc. - are affected by these factors.  (The guitar body,
back & sides, contribute to the sound and projection somewhat but the top is where it counts.)

Many inexpensive low end guitars are typically constructed with plywood tops.  The plywood is made up of several thin layers
of wood glued together like a sandwich.  While these guitars are fine for most beginners they are typically not very vibrant or
do not carry a wide range of tone and color.

For the serious guitarist there is no substitute for a solid wood guitar.   Solid wood tops resonate and transmit vibrations from
the strings better.  They are a bit louder than plywood guitars and there is a difference in the sound one hears.    A solid
wood guitar sounds richer, and has it's own unique character with subtle overtones, harmonics, or partials all of which
combine to color the basic tone.

No two pieces of wood sound exactly the same.  Different species have different sound qualities due to differences in density
and other factors.  Two tops made from pieces of wood from the same tree may not sound exactly the same.   Steel-string
guitar tops are typically made from spruce.  Classical guitar tops are made from either spruce or cedar.  Flamenco guitars
traditionally use spruce.  (Other woods may be used, but these are the most traditional and common.)    

Listen to this Sound Clip from NPR Radio: Master luthier TJ Thompson of West Concord, Mass., demonstrates how guitar
wood sounds before it's made into guitars... and how a guitar-maker's task is to find the music in the wood.

The Music of Guitar Wood (Broadcast on Dec 22, 2006)

The guitar is truly an international instrument with ebony (fret board) from Africa, rose wood (back and sides) from Brazil or
India (to name just two origins), spruce (sound top) from Germany, US, Canada or elsewhere ...... or cedar (sound top) from
other exotic locations around the world.  At the hands of the skilled luthier these materials come together to produce
instruments that are truly a work of art.  

When it comes to Classical Guitars with cedar or spruce sound tops, one is not necessarily better than the other.  The
difference is in the tonal qualities they offer.  Spruce is harder than Cedar and provides a “brighter” sound quality.   Cedar
has a darker, mellow or warmer tone.   Spruce will change over time as the wood continues to dry and age.  A spruce top
classical guitar may sound different  after a couple of years.

Cedar tops have that recognizable “Spanish sound”.   Spruce does too, but the tone is typically a bit brighter in timbre.   It’s
been said that Cedar tops sound great right away where as a Spruce top will sound great in a year or so after it breaks in.  
(Not that spruce tops sound bad initially, but as the wood ages the character changes over time and the tone "follows".)

In this respect the choice of Cedar or Spruce is a personal preference depending on the sound you are looking for.  Segovia
played both over the course of his career.

When constructed the top is made from a thin piece of solid wood, thin in order to allow vibration .  Structural support is given
to the top through the use of a bracing system underneath. The braces provide strength while still allowing the top to vibrate.   
The early traditional luthiers introduced their own unique ideas or made refinements to systems which came before them.

Torres is considered the first to come up with a system which offered strength while providing a very robust sound.  
Rodriguez, Ramirez, Hauser and others made refinements or added their own ideas to other luthier's designs.   Each
experimented with their own bracing system in order to balance their design for strength, volume, tone, projection.   

A few examples are shown below.  
Sring Length:

Early guitars employed groups of single, double, or triple strings called "courses".   Four-course and
five-course guitars were common in the 16th and 17th century with string length and tunings varying widely
between instruments.   Some instruments used tied-on gut frets.  

Some commonly used string lengths, measured from the nut to the bridge, were 71cm (28 in.), 68cm (26
3/4in.),  74cm (29 in.).  Antonio Stradivari, the famous violin maker,  made a five-course guitar with  a 74cm
(29 in.) string length.

650mm is considered the standard today for classical guitars but many modern day builders offer 640mm or
630mm models in their catalogs.
  • Check back for more articles
Smallman lives and works in Australia near New South Wales.  He uses a
lattice structure for his sound top made from wood and carbon fiber.  The
sound top is made using very, very thin wood.  The top is so thin that it is
possible to dent it with pressure from a single finger.   (John Williams tells
a story of a customs agent who poked his finger through his Smallman
guitar while inspecting the contents of this guitar case.)

Several guitar makers have adopted Smallman's lattice bracing technique
but without incorporating the thin wooden top.  Instead they use the lattice
braces with a top designed with traditional (or modified) thickness.  The
results are guitars with noticeable volume and projection but without the
fragility.  

Smallman's popularity and demand rose after John Williams began using
his guitars in the '80's.