Harp Guitar Images - Identified European Instruments

According to Torres author José L Romanillos, Antonio de Torres (1817-92) made three eleven stringed guitars. These were said to be his interpretation of the Germanic bass-guitar (Kontra guitare). Although Torres had seven strings on the fingerboard and the other four lay off the fingerboard. The first one, Torres's 'SE 07' was made in 1876 and was owned by José Martinez Toboso (pictured). The 'SE' stands for the 'Second Epoch' of Torres's life of guitar making. In this era he numbered his instruments. The 'SE 07' guitar was inherited by Maria Terol, who unfortunately had it converted from eleven strings to six strings by Marcelo Barbero in 1945. The guitar has cypress wood back and sides, which is normally associated with flamenco guitars. The best reason for using cypress is that it is not as heavy as rosewood and that it was a local wood and so cheaper than rosewood, which had to be imported. This guitar has a three-piece spruce soundboard. -Stephen Sedwick.

According to scholar Stephen Sedgwick, Ramirez built at least one 9-string and one 11-string harp guitar, adding that Segovia's famous Ramirez was originally an 11-string. In this photo, "The instrument far right is an 11-string. The 10-string came about with Yepes and so there weren't any before that, that have come to light in Spain. There only seems to be 11-strings in Spain. It is hard to make out any detail but look at the bridge. It extends on the bass side and ends close to the edge of the body. as on my copy and the Torres instruments. The neck width is much wider than the other guitar in the picture. You can just make out the nut as a line that extends towards the bass side and off the fingerboard. To find the nut look in line with the nut on the other guitar in the window."