A quick 'Hello' to introduce myself .... I'm Stephen Rees; I'm a maker of Spanish guitars from my workshop near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England.

I learned of this forum from Tomás Jimenez and his wife María when they visited me in my workshop last week.
We spent a couple of enjoyable hours talking guitars ..... Tomás kindly played a blanca I had just finished making and I had a chance to have a look at a couple of his guitars that he had brought along; a Gerundino and a Requeña.

Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to know more about what I do .....

All the best,
Steve

Stephen:
Welcome to the foro.
I do not know Tomas personally, but I enjoy his contributions and admire his talent.
People like Tomas, and others, knowlege help us, the neophites, learn about the Art of Flamenco.
I hope that you will also contribute your knowlege for the benefit of the Old School Flamenco Foro community.
Bienvenido!

Welcome Stephen .
I hope you will post some of your work in the Taller section for us all to see
All the best .

Hola Steve
Fabulous to see you here.
Your guitar is very flamenco and so easy to play.
I would recommend anyone to try one of yours while of course also respecting the other wonderful guitarreros that are known here to us all.
Saludos
Tomás

Thanks Ram, Victor and Tomás for the warm welcome !

Victor ..... If you are interested in seeing a few 'snaps' of my work please have a look here http://www.flickr.com/photos/reesguitars/

Cheers!

I see in the photos that one of your guitars under construction has a Tornavoz to lower the resonant frequency of the sound box. Is that a contrabass, classical or flamenco guitar? Was that an experiment or do you often make guitars like that? What is your opinion of the differences with and without a Tornavoz?

-Bob

Steven, I noticed you use a tornavoz. Is this just on classicals or flamencos as well? I have heard classical guitars with a brass tornavoz and they sounded nice. Would be interested in hearing sound clips of your guitars especially if you have a flamenco using the tornavoz.

You come to our little Bodega with Tomas recommendation so we know you are not a tourist. Welcome and looking forward to hearing some of your work.

The photos are of a classical guitar with an experimental tornavoz. I think most makers go through their "tornavoz phase" as curiosity leads them to build a guitar with some form of tornavoz. Mostly these are pierced metal of some sort, though I opted to try out quite a deep wooden version with mixed results. The box dropped from F# down to E and the basses were superb with good projection, however the trebles seemed distant and a little hollow sounding. If I try another I will use a much shorter version or maybe try a pierced version of the deeper one. These decisions need to be made before the back goes on the guitar as the tornavoz can not be fitted/removed through the soundhole, although a Swiss guitarmaker friend of mine did make a removable wooden version which had interlocking sections and was bayonet mounted, much like a Nikon lens mount ..... such precision !!
Not sure I would fit one on a flamenco guitar, but it might be interesting .... never say never !
I don't have any sound/video clips of my guitars so far, though I am trying to get something organised soon(ish) and will keep you posted .....

Cheers!

I had another workshop visit from Tomás Jimenez recently and shot this little video-clip whilst trying out my Zoom Q3 ..... I thought forum members here may be interested.
http://youtu.be/FO8nVKljDVk
Posted with Tomás's kind permission.

That is a great sounding guitar and beautiful playing by Tomas.