“I recently experimented with carbon fibre, but it was not very convincing.” A. T. – Because there is so very much to discover in them! I believe that we can learn in the process of making them, just like art students who learn by copying the works of the master artists in museums. If you want to make a serious copy of a guitar you need to start by measuring the thicknesses, examining every little detail, and little by little, you find yourself becoming really invested in the process, and you try to understand each choice made by the luthier. It was truly a pleasure to work with Robert Bouchet; he was such a cultured man, endowed with great sensitivity and an excellent musician; I had access to his famous workshop diary, the “Cahier d’atelier” before it was published, which inspired me to make, in 1994, a first guitar as a tribute to him. Indeed, my guitars pay homage to his work, but they are not true copies as such, since I didn’t stick to the original details: I make the underbridge bar a bit shorter; I use different thicknesses… Ultimately the sound is closer to that of my own models than of his guitars. However, I don’t make copies of Torres guitars; one day, maybe… In a Torres you
Above: experimental carbon fibre lining. Below: Bracing with reinforcing struts in an X-formation.
find everything a guitar should be; it’s the ultimate. I’m waiting for that call, which must come from the inside; it’ll be like a coming of age, and the time isn’t yet right. Orfeo – Which woods do you use? A. T. – I use a lot of rosewood (Indian or Brazilian), satinwood, maple, wenge and sometimes cypress for the back and sides, and cedar and spruce for the tops. I like wenge very much; it’s a wood that is widely used in Africa for percussion instruments. Quite early on in my career I understood that wood can vary greatly from one piece to the next and so I started cutting wood of consistent quality myself and storing it in sufficient quantities for my needs in a bid to obtain consistent outcomes. I recently experimented with carbon fibre, too. A 6/10 mm sheet of carbon fibre glued to the back improves rigidity enormously. But in the end I decided to give up on it: not only were the results not very convincing, but I also learned in the meantime that handling carbon fibre can be a health hazard. I have also tried out other ways of lining the back: rosewood on rosewood or spruce on rosewood, as had been done by another great luthier, René Lacote, in Paris in the nineteenth century.