Acoustic research applied to the flamenco guitar
Understanding the instrument to expand the possibilities of music
This page was created to share and disseminate my work and research on the guitar, with particular attention to the world of the flamenco guitar.
Throughout my professional career, I have devoted much of my effort to understanding how instruments work and the complex processes involved in generating, amplifying and transmitting sound. Studying a musical instrument quickly reveals a fundamental reality: its acoustic behaviour is extraordinarily complex and, strange as it may seem, rarely follows a straightforward cause-and-effect relationship.
Every element of the instrument forms part of a delicate balance in which multiple structural and dynamic factors interact. This complexity makes research a necessarily long-term process, grounded in observation, experimentation and continuous analysis.
As in any genuine process of research, this path has been marked by countless trials, many unexpected results and a number of advances which, modest though they may sometimes be, have opened new avenues of understanding. Every error has been part of the learning process, and every small result has helped broaden our knowledge of how the instrument behaves.
This work has led to a number of variations applied to stringed instruments which, in the future, may contribute to the development of guitars that are more balanced and accessible to the player. The ultimate aim is not only to understand the instrument from a technical perspective, but also to help the guitarist establish a more natural relationship with it and, as a result, expand their possibilities for musical expression.
Alongside this work, I have developed a research system focused on studying the structural and acoustic behaviour of stringed instruments. This approach could provide a foundation for analysing and potentially advancing different instruments within the plucked-string family.
Research into musical instruments is, in essence, a permanent search. Every advance raises new questions, and every answer reveals new dimensions of the acoustic phenomenon. In this context, studying the instrument also becomes a way of delving more deeply into the very nature of sound and music.
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone who, in one way or another, has placed their trust in my work and accompanied this research process.
In particular, I wish to acknowledge Masaki Daido and Solera Flamenca, whose support, trust and commitment to disseminating this research have been fundamental in enabling this work to develop and be shared.
Because, ultimately, understanding the instrument is also a way of understanding music.
My story
Wood and music have been part of my life from the start.
My father was a carpenter and an enthusiast of plucked-string instruments. When I was fourteen, he taught me to play the lute. I grew up in that world, among tools and timber, and that bond with music has stayed with me ever since.
Over the years I worked in carpentry, making furniture, doors and structures, until I had my own workshop. There I learned to observe how wood behaves — its movement, its tensions and the way it responds to time. That experience remains central to the way I understand the guitar.
In 1999 I joined Aromas de Canela, a rondalla in Estepa. Daily contact with its instruments opened a new path: I began by making bandurrias and carrying out repairs for musicians I knew. Later came lutes, vihuelas, quenas and, little by little, guitars.
I have now spent more than two decades making instruments by hand. My interest in restoration also goes back a long way: I was already drawn to bringing old furniture back to life while preserving its history. Today, making, restoring and researching are parts of the same practice: listening to what wood and instruments have to teach.