Antonio de Torres - Guitar Maker, Carpenter
His greatest merit is that he came up with a universally accepted guitar. Jose Luis Romanillos, luthier Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Antonio de Torres. Those of us who love the classical guitar owe this man everything, he created a model of the guitar that continues to capture the hearts of true music lovers. He really didn't do anything that hadn't already been done by other guitar makers - other makers had used larger bodies, the so-called fan bracing, domed tops, longer string lengths, all this was already known - but Torres guitars sounded different from others. Many contemporary classical guitar makers build copies of the original Torres guitars, there are several well known classical guitarists that concertize on original Torres guitars because even after 130+ years those guitars still have wonderful voices. Antonio de Torres apprenticed with a carpenters guild in Vera, Spain when he was 12 years and when he was 17 he was listed in the g