Reviews: Making a Spanish Guitar by José L. Romanillos

by Pierre Audinet

Originally published in American Lutherie #118, 2014

Making a Spanish Guitar
José Luis Romanillos
Edited by Marian Harris Winspear
ISBN 13008619-001
RH Publications, 200 pp., 2013
www.romanillosguitarbooks.com, €70 (Euros)

One of the much awaited for books on guitar making is now up for order! The book is disarmingly simple, and this may frustrate some, but it is in my view a must-have for any guitar maker with a genuine interest in classical nylon string guitars for two reasons.

First, and this is probably what most readers seek, the book presents the technical specifications evolved by José Romanillos for the design of his instruments over the span of his career of fifty-plus years. But in a way, this is almost secondary to the other reason why this book is a must. This book is a testimony on the design of the Spanish guitar as a specific instrument standard within the broad family of nylon string guitars — for lack of a better word, since “nylon” appears a bit as an anachronism here!