La Guerrera de Cadiz
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Model: 1761 La Guerrera de Cadiz classical guitar
Top:
German spruce
Back
and Sides: Maple
Scale:
645mm
Nut:
48mm
Finish: French polish
Tuners:
Baker machine heads
Country: Spain
Year:
1761
Condition:
Excellent
La Guerrera de Cadiz, 1761.
One ancient practice in Spain is for makers to give
a name to a guitar that is particularly outstanding. The most famous example of
this is La Liona (the lioness) of Antonio Torres.
This baroque guitar was named "La Guerrera de Cadiz" (The Warrioress of Cadiz)
and was made by a luthier whose name has been lost to history in Cadiz in 1761. Like the Sevilla maker Francisco Sanguino's guitars,
this instrument has a very deep body, 127mm at the neck and 140mm at the bottom.
Sanguino seems to have originated fan bracing only a couple years earlier.
Whereas Sanguino's guitars had three fan braces, this one has seven. Its name is appropriate: it has been
through the wars, and though scarred, it is a survivor. Its story is one that is
typical of many five-course baroque guitars that were converted into 6-stringed
instruments in the 19th century. It was made into six stringed instrument
probably in England about 1840 judging from the Panormo style headstock with
Baker machine heads that has been grafted on to the
neck. During this conversion, the original tie bridge was replaced by a
pin-bridge, the original scale which was probably 665-670mm was shortened to
645mm, and a modern fretted fingerboard was added. The luthier who built it
obviously understood the relationship between the Helmholtz resonance, soundhole
size, and the volume of the chamber. Its deep body (130-140mm) gives this guitar a resonance
chamber whose volume approaches that of a modern guitar, resulting in a
surprisingly modern sound, reminiscent of classical guitars of the Madrid school guitars.
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