It is not
the first time that authorship of a creation is attributed to people who have
had nothing to do with it, as is the case with the 10-string guitar. And as
lately, and through different channels, I have received the information that
some believe that this guitar was devised and designed by Paulino Bernabé, and
I have found out this because it has been disseminated in various media, so I
have decided to clarify this matter.
I will
start by saying that Paulino Bernabé I, as is well known in the guitar scene,
was a disciple of my father José Ramírez III, and ended up being in charge of
his workshop until he became independent in 1969, obtaining a well-deserved
prestige as a guitar maker. But he was not the creator of the 10-string guitar,
and had nothing to do with its creation process. What's more, he never
attributed his authorship or his participation in said process, although it is
true that, like other guitar makers did, he built his own version of this
instrument created by my father, José Ramírez III, with the collaboration of
Narciso Yepes , who was enthusiastic about my father's idea and was very
commited to contributing his valuable ideas as a guitarist.
In 1963 my
father started to think about creating a 10-string guitar, inspired by the viola
d'amore, with its inner strings that provide a charming and magical sound, so
he built a 6-string guitar with another 6 additional strings inside that were
tuned by a double tuning machine.
My father discussed this project with Andrés Segovia on one of those afternoons that th
So, my
father's next step was to discuss his idea with Narciso Yepes, and the
disappointing result obtained with his first prototype. He turned to him
because, in addition to being a great guitarist, he considered him to be quite
a rational man, open-minded and somewhat adventurous, and Yepes was very enthusiastic
about the idea to the point that they worked together for several years until they
achieved something that finally
satisfied both of them, and it was thanks to a call from Yepes to my father
telling him to simply add four strings on the fingerboard, since that would
allow him to silence them when necessary with the right hand. The design, as my
father explains in his book “Things about the guitar”, was easy, the
complicated thing came with its construction, since it needed a bridge strong
enough to withstand the tension of 10 strings. And he did it. And Narciso Yepes
popularized this instrument all over the world, devised a tuning system for the additional 4 strings, and got string
makers to make the necessary strings for this guitar.
Since this
guitar became quite popular then, there were many guitarists who followed Yepes's footsteps learning to play this
instrument, and other guitar makers built their own 10-string guitars, one of
which was the one by Bernabé, and which also Yepes played for a long time in
his concerts.
As for
Andrés Segovia, when he saw a guitar with a fingerboard so wide that it
distorted, in his opinion, the harmonious and balanced forms of this instrument
that he loved so much, he chose not to want to know anything else about the
subject, so in the visits my father made to his studio in Concha Espina, enjoying
a good a whisky and an always interesting and rich topic of conversation, the
10-string guitar never had a place again.
It is true
that, after the death of Narciso Yepes, little by little the 10-string guitar
was losing the interest of the guitarists, and currently there are few who
still play this instrument. Sometimes they make orders for us, but they are
becoming very scarce. On the one hand, it is a shame, because it is a very
enriching instrument, since the 4 extra strings add a richness and depth to the
sound that the 6-string guitar does not provide.
