Flamenco Guitar It was not so long ago( some researcher says in 1950's) that people began to distinguish flamenco guitar from classical guitar. Before flamenco guitar's birth, So-called Spanish guitar had been born in Andalusia at the end of 18c., It is thought this Spanish guitar was introduced into theflamenco music with Andalusian fork songs, as well as into the classical music play in Spain. The typical flamenco guitar playing technique, Rasgueado(strumming) was not used first in playing flamenco. It was widely known and used technique in playing baroque guitars of 15-16c. Of course it was not so powerful and sharp playing like today's playing, but perhaps had enough effect to bring excitement to the music we call "classic" today. The powerful rasgueado of today was needed to cope with the handclap and the singing voice, and this became possible with the guitars with the elevated fingerboard (see the history of Spanish guitar). The elevated fingerboard makes much more distance for finger play between the strings and the soundboard, and in case of previous flash fingerboard, you cant' play rasgueado without scratching the guitar or your fingers. The name flamenco guitar maybe associated with the guitars with sides and back of cypress (the same color as the soundboard). In 19c. the expensive guitars had sides and back of rosewood, and cheap guitars' sides and back were of cypress from Spain (it was cheap!). These cypress guitars were called "guitarras para tocar aires populares(guitars to play popular music pieces)" in the catalog of Manuel Ramirez in early 1910's. Perhaps the synonymous word,"Guitarras Sevillanas(Seville style guitars)" was used in the label of a cypress guitar made by a Madrid luthier at the end of 19c. In the same label, we can see the word perhaps contrast to this, "Guitarras de Conciertos(concert guitars)". In some photos at the era of "Cafe Cantante" starting in late 19c., we can see guitarists playing rosewood guitars (sometimes, walnut or mahogany is indistinguishable from rosewood). On the other hand, Torres made 11strings guitar of cypress for the concert of the classical(and popular) music. In other words, the difference of wood used in Sides and back meant difference of the price, not the music to be played. And the word flamenco guitar was not popular until early 20c(or probably later). These days, the price of a rosewood guitar was almost doubled comparing to a cypress guitar, and even several times more with the plush ornaments of wooden mosaic and/or mother of pearl. Also, the structure was the same between rosewood and cypress guitars. Torres made them in the same way, and regarding the rosewood guitar Segovia played( by Manuel Ramirez of 1912), the thickness of the boards is not thicker than case of cypress guitars, considering its weight of 1370g (it is said that some rosewood guitars had thinner sides and backs to compensate greater specific gravity of rosewood). Who made the separation in the tructure between classical and flamenco guitar, or more properly, who changed the structure of classical guitar away from flamenco and traditional Spanish guitar was, Jose Ramirez �V. It was early 1960's and since then, classical guitars were going to get heavier. Also since then, some flamenco guitarists began to play rosewood guitars or genuine classical guitars mainly for solo　play. Has there been any change in cypress guitars? Until Santos, no, but the greatest follower of Santos, Marcelo Barbero made some guitars in his last days with thicker boards and additional soundboard reinforcement (bridge patch) like H. Hauser. These change may be based on the advise by his good friend, Carlos Montoya, who actively played as a solo guitarist at main stages in US(please see the part of Sabicas). The flamenco guitars played today,have many variations in wood(cypress ,rosewood,etc.,) and weight(1200g-1800g)., but generally have been getting heavier. And the character of traditional sound was rather lost because of playing circumstance and recording technique (especially bass). The deference of the sound between a rosewood guitar and a cypress guitar is often talked about. It depends on the structure or the weight of individual instrument, but when we compare cypress guitar of 1300g to rosewood one of 1700g, we may say cypress guitar has softer sound(can be metallic by changing touch), less sustain, and better sound separation. I much like sound of cypress guitar, so like to continue making cypress guitar including some classical guitar, and with rosewood, I will choose hard rosewood to make the guitars like before 1960's. At last, I like to mention a type of flamenco guitar which was extinct years ago. When the Cafe Cantante got popular in late 19c., the guitars needed more appearing sound and more durability to cope with laud and hard circumstance in cafe. To live up this requirement, The Madrid luthier Francisco Gonzalez and his disciple Jose Ramirez �Tdeveloped new model named "Tablao guitar". This model had a large(38cm wide) and shallow(less than 8cm deep) body and thick arched soundboard and back. It seemed to be a good seller temporary( I have often seen this type of guitar in guitar shop in Tokyo), but finally undercut by Torres type guitars represented by Manuel Ramirez's. If my memory is correct, they had metallic tone which may be distinctive in laud air, but were not the instrument to cope with the requirements of tone quality or deep expression. As a result, the Tablao Guitar disappeared in early 20c., but its metallic sound survived, through old recordings for example, in people's memory with the image of flamenco guitar, and this memory might have wide variety of influence in the sound of later flamenco guitars.