GUITARRA ESPAÑOLA
JESSE FULLER VIDEOS
IT'S NOT THE HEAT. . .
Q What's the difference between a classical and a Spanish guitar?
Gordon Helfarb
Ridgewood, New Jersey
A Not much, if anything. But what's in a name, anyway? When it comes to the names of nylon- or gut-string guitars, a bit of history.
By the end of the Middle Ages, four- course, plucked stringed instruments with fretboards and in-curved waists had spread all over Europe. (A course is two or more strings placed close together so that they can be fretted as one.) There developed in Spain about this time a guitar with five courses, which became known as the guitarra española or Spanish guitar. Its musical possibilities surpassed those of its medieval cousin so completely that it took over Europe and the New World. It was tuned like the modern guitar, but without the low E string. Even though Spanish guitars with different stringing came and went, all guitars with single strings (eventually six of them) tuned in fourths with a dropped third became known worldwide as Spanish guitars. In the last century, and for the beginning of this one, the terms guitar and Spanish guitar were interchangeable.Then two big things happened to the guitar that affected its name: Andrés Segovia and electric guitars. Segovia's mastery and genius raised the world's regard for the guitar, and the instrument moved from its usual haunts (the streets and the salons) into the concert halls. At the same time, the electric guitar was being developed, and by the early '50s it had become as common as the Spanish guitar. It now became confusing to say simply "guitar," because that word could be applied to two very different animals. So the term acoustic guitar was coined.
It was reportedly around that time (the early '50s) that the New York Classical Guitar Society was established, which consequently deemed the term acoustic guitar unsatisfactory to describe "guitars made in the Spanish tradition," because another acoustic animal of a different stripe, the steel-string American folk guitar, had also become pervasive. They decided that henceforth the Spanish guitar should be more correctly termed the classic or classical guitar, because the instrument was by that time widely being used for symphonic or classical music from Europe.
I venture to add that the term classic is itself unsatisfactory and of little use in the current musical scene, in which these guitars are seen in the hands of jazz, country-western, and Latin American musicians, as well as Russians, Africans, Irish, French, and Greeks, all playing the musical styles of their native lands, which are as far from the European classic music tradition as you can imagine. That's why I've come to use the term nylon-string guitar, a straightforward label that will serve until nylon itself is phased out in favor of superior materials.
—William R. Cumpiano
Q Can you tell me about any videos that feature performances by Jesse Fuller [featured in the July issue]?
Bill Haines
Parkasie, Pennsylvania
A There are at least three videos available
that feature performances by Jesse Fuller. Blues up the Country: The Country
Blues Guitar Legacy, Rare Performances, 1962–1970, is offered by Vestapol
Videos and includes performances by Furry Lewis, Reverend Gary Davis, Josh White,
John Jackson, Pink Anderson, and Ethel and George McCoy, as well as Fuller.
Also on the Vestapol label is Legends of Bottleneck Blues Guitar, which
features Fuller along with Son House, Johnny Shines, Fred McDowell, Furry Lewis,
and Mance Lipscomb. Finally, Masters of the Country Blues offers performances
by Fuller and Elizabeth Cotten and is available on the Yazoo label (distributed
by Shanachie). All three videos are available from the mail-order house Roots
and Rhythm at (888) 766-8766.
—Bronwen Morgan
Q Can you tell me what ranges of temperature and humidity won't damage guitars and how I might fix a room to maintain it within those ranges?
Andrew Webber
Laramie, Wyoming
A Let's deal with the worst first: the greatest damage is caused by rapid and radical changes, with sudden drops in humidity causing the worst structural problems. Temperature fluctuations are more likely to cause finish crackling and crazing, which may not make you happy but are relatively harmless.
Wood, of which most guitars are made, expands and contracts with changes in
relative humidity. Even "dry" wood retains some water—typically around
6 percent of the weight (termed MC for moisture content) is actually
moisture when the ambient humidity is in the 45–50 percent range. When
the humidity drops, the MC drops also, and the wood shrinks; conversely, when
the humidity goes up, the wood expands.
While the expansion of wood in your guitar can wreak havoc with action, it is the shrinkage that causes cracks, particularly to tops and backs. The sides hold the rim of the guitar quite rigidly in shape, so if the wood making up the top or back shrinks too much, something's got to give.
Another problem with the way guitars are generally made is that the outside surfaces of the body are sprayed with lacquer or other film finishes while the inside surfaces are left unfinished. While lacquer does allow slow passage of moisture from the wood, a rapid change in relative humidity (RH) will cause much more moisture to be lost from the inside surfaces of the top, back, and sides, causing internal stresses in the wood to skyrocket. Not good!
I encountered a disastrous example of this at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival a few years ago: two beautiful new custom Martins with the faces sunk in and the strings lying on the fretboards. They were absolutely unplayable and ready to implode. The owner had come from east Texas swamp country with an average RH of nearly 95 percent to an incredibly dry Telluride summer weekend with RH down to about 20 percent. The guitars just went nuts.
Even more normal changes in humidity will cause action changes, because the top bellies up in higher-than-normal humidity and sinks down when the humidity drops. On most acoustics, the fingerboard extension glued to the top will also rise and drop, making playing in upper positions a seasonal occupation!
If you have the luxury of climate-controlling a room for your instruments, I
would try to duplicate the conditions found at many guitar factories: 45–50
percent RH at 65–70 degrees Fahrenheit. This will not only help prevent
the wood and finish from cracking but will also keep the guitars dimensionally
stable so that action stays constant.
—Rick Turner
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