Roger Williams Guitars

The Modern "Baroque Guitar".

A “modern” Baroque Guitar for Raymond Burley

I was introduced to Raymond several years ago by Gordon Giltrap (They are of course partners in the duo ‘Double Vision).  Gordon had been a customer and good friend for a number of years prior to me meeting Ray.  I think at that time I fitted a pickup to an old Takamine classical guitar that Ray wanted to amplify.  Subsequently Raymond entrusted the restoration of his beloved Martin Fleeson guitar to me and was quite pleased by the new lease of life I had been able to restore in it.

In 2006 I made a Classical guitar for Raymond to try and although it did not have quite the range and power he was seeking at that time, he used it for Baroque pieces which its “clarity of line” well suited.  Raymond, as you may know is a recognised expert on the Baroque period and it’s somewhat unusual tablature form of notation (he is very modest about his knowledge, but I can assure you it is extensive, as I was to find out).  You may also know that Ray has authored handbooks for the London College of Music examinations which include transcriptions from the tablature of many Baroque works by Sanz, Corbetta, Visee and others.

 In early 2007 Ray asked me if I would consider making him a Baroque guitar, but this was to be no ordinary Baroque guitar, if there is such a thing.  Ray wanted an instrument that looked and sounded like a five-course Baroque guitar but played like a Classical guitar!  It had to have a fingerboard of normal scale-length with metal frets, and a bridge with a saddle, oh, and pegs not tuning machines, of course I realised, didn’t I, that it also had to have re-entrant tuning, oh and yes, he didn’t want gut strings!

So, ever up for a challenge, I accepted the commission and got down to research and the initial design.  The biggest hurdle to overcome was how to make the guitar sound Baroque-like, with the fingerboard metal frets and no gut strings.  So we started with the strings, which is where any good guitar-maker will tell you, you should start.

A few years earlier I had restored a romantic period guitar and had been offered by Gary Bridgewood (of Bridgewood and Neitzert, in London) a new string from the Italian Aquila company made from a material they called “Nylgut”, which is a very modified form of Nylon. So I obtained a classical-set and offered them to Ray to try-out.  He liked the feel and sound so the decision was made, now I could work out the string tensions involved from the 10 (or nine) strings and design the soundboard, bridge and neck.

The body-shape evolved from study of guitars of the period; I eventually settled on a Stradivarius-like shape but some 10% larger all round, which gave a reasonable compromise between the differing sizes of the Baroque and Classical guitars.

The main characteristic of re-entrant tuning means that the strings are not arranged in pitch order high to low. The ten strings are arranged in five pairs (courses) and the pair at the top are tuned to A3, the 4^th course to D4, the 3^rd to G3, the second to B3 and the first to E4.  So you see there are no bass strings to speak of. Although lower octave strings (bourdons) can be fitted to the 5^th and 4^th courses to suit the music of the composer.

The reason for re-entrant tuning becomes clearer when you study the original tablature, for the high fifth and fourth courses were used by composers to achieve what Sanz called campanellas (little bells). Playing as many open strings as possible and allowing them to ring on, gives the music it’s characteristic bell-like quality.

There is also considerable debate about the pitch of the strings.  The usual practical convention being to tune the highest pitch string (then gut of course) as tight as possible without breaking and then tune the other strings to it, although Raymond’s guitar is designed to be tuned to concert pitch at 440 Hz.

So that about wraps up three months of research and design.  In the construction I employed a master-grade German Spruce table, braced with three fans and two fine transverse bars, the back and sides are of flamed English Sycamore the back being of five piece construction with Ebony lines.  The bindings are simple Ebony and the rosette is burr English Walnut with Brazilian Rosewood taken from the headstock veneers.  The neck is of Spanish Cedar and the fingerboard of African Ebony.  The tuning pegs are in English Plum and were made by Bruce Brook.  As mentioned before the strings are Aquila Nylgut which gives the feel and sound of gut with the practical life of Nylon, altogether a good compromise.

Raymond says of the guitar
"Roger Williams has done a fantastic job in producing this unorthodox instrument. As with everything he does, making or repairing, the workmanship is second to none. The guitar is a joy to play and the sound is exactly as I hoped it would be. Unfortunately as I have no option other than to play the instrument with right hand nails, I was a little concerned that this may create problems but thankfully this is not the case. I have been interested in the baroque guitar repertory for a good number of years and played a fair amount of it on the modern concert guitar. Unfortunately, bearing in mind the totally different tunings of the two instruments, this can only ever be a compromise. Thanks to Roger Williams I am now able to play the music as originally intended."