My wife and I recently enjoyed an hour with Sam and his wife as we passed through Hermiston on a return trip from the Oregon Coast which provided an opportunity to see and play his maple Tsiorba and the rosewood negra he made himself back in 1974. I had played his negra before, but since then he sanded off the original heavy finish, thinned the redwood top, and then had Peter Tsiorba scrape the top even thinner, thin the neck, and apply French polish overall.

None of the recordings you have heard come close to the quality of the live sound produced by that guitar with those improvements. I was very impressed. I also was impressed by how easy the guitar is to play. The combination of a thinner neck, thinner top, slightly lower overall weight, and lower action makes that guitar wonderful to play. It’s a guitar you won't want to put down if you sometime have the opportunity to play it.

I played that guitar first and it sounded so terrific that I was prepared for a letdown when Sam handed me his maple Tsiorba. The two guitars have very different sound qualities, but his Tsiorba was anything but a letdown. It is an outstanding guitar with a more typical old school flamenco sound than his negra. Anyone who has heard flamenco before would immediately think "flamenco" when hearing that guitar. Like with his negra, none of the recordings you have heard come close to reproducing the effect of hearing that guitar live. (Even so, I wish I had thought to record myself playing it while I was there.)

That guitar also is unusually easy to play. Peter seems especially talented at perfecting fret and string alignments, neck angle, top stiffness, and whatever else is required to make guitars easy to play. I don't know all he does to achieve his results. I just know Tsiorba guitars and other guitars Peter reworks are exceptionally easy to play and Sam's Tsiorba no exception.

The Dominguez Sam had when I stopped to see him in 2009 was a decent guitar, but not even close to either of the guitars he has now. I can't imagine that Sam will ever want to sell either of those guitars where they are very different from each other and both truly exceptional, but if someday he does, he shouldn't sell them on the Internet, because they would be worth thousands of dollars more to someone who had played them. I don't know what Peter charged him for his Tsiorba, but whatever it was I would bet it could be sold personally to a professional player for a considerable profit, because guitars that good are not easy to find.

Cell phone photo of Sam playing his maple Tsiorba guitar

-Bob

Thanks Bob. One correction. Peter just finished the top and neck on the 74. The back and sides were left original as the finish was fairly thin and chances are that changing the finish to french polish would have little effect. I think is does make a very good flamenco now, but still favors Brazilian classical and really excels in that genre.

I never realized how loud the Tsiorba was until I heard you play it and could stand out in front. Also I could appreciate the phenomenal basses during your playing of Siguiriyas. You are correct that no recording will ever do justice to Peters guitars. This is why players are amazed when they first get their Tsiorba. They have heard recording, but the live experience with the phenomenal response and super playability is why Peter gets the high praise that those who have never played on a Tsiorba don't understand.

Bob, I definitely need to get up to your neck of the woods again (it's only 25 miles!) and have you test-drive my Johnny Walker blanca. I think/hope you will be suitably impressed.

Yes, I would like to learn what it is like.

-Bob