La Amistad

“La Amistad” is played on the album by Antigoni Goni in Pavana and El testament de n’Amelia, and by Maarten Vandenbemden in the two Danzas españolas and Valses Poeticos.

 

In frequent summer courses, mainly in Cordoba and Sigüenza, José continued passing on his art and craft to young guitar makers, introducing them to the basics of the Spanish method of building and assembling a guitar and teaching his own constructional method in the Spanish tradition. In all his courses, he and Marian created such a friendly atmosphere that most of the participants found it to be a unique, magical, life changing experience. After working on this particular guitar during one summer course, he wanted to pay tribute to that very special atmosphere, so he named the instrument “La Amistad"

 

The guitar consists of an unmatched 2-piece soundboard of spruce (Picea excelsa), the two parts of which are from the same tree, of medium grain and with slightly wider grain towards the edges on both sides with a prominent curly-flamed structure perpendicular to the grain, a back made of two book-matched pieces of Cypress (Cupressus sempervivens) with irregular grain pattern due to a branch to both sides in the middle bout and a neck of Spanish Cedar (Cedrela odorata) which is joined to the head in a so-called V-joint. The front of the head is plated with rosewood and decorated with a centre strip.

 

The rosette on this guitar is unusual, made from diagonal placed light coloured squares with a cross-motive inlaid in a dark background.

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Copyright text © Gerhard Oldiges