Copy of the Original Torres FE-17. When young Francsico Tarrega visited Torres to purchase a good guitar, Torres gave Tarrega a guitar to try. After hearing Tarrega Torres immediately recognized his extraordinary Talent and when into his private room and brought out his own personal instrument FE-17 and gave it to Tarrega. Tarrega played this guitar for the first 20 years of his life. Tarrega acquired his first Torres guitar in Seville in 1869, FE 17, a guitar which, according to Emilio Pujol, Torres had made for his own personal use. He was later to acquire two more Torres guitars, one made in 1883 (SE 49) and the other one in 1888 (SE 114). His first Torres guitar had its back and ribs made from flamed maple and although the maple used by Torres was of good quality, the flame pattern was somewhat irregular, particularly in the figure used for the back.

Emilio Pujol ……… It was made from maple, with the soundboard in spruce, the neck and the head in cedar and the fingerboard in ebony. The size was slightly smaller than the usual one. Its soundhole and contours were bordered with the finest of inlays of a pale green shade with double herringbone purfling; on the head, the back, and the ribs was an exquisite rectangular meander inlay. In addition to the spontaneity of the sound, perhaps due to its tornavoz, there was its clear, warm timbre as if it were of gold. The balance between bass and treble was proportionally exact in volume and the duration of its vibrations equally generous throughout the fingerboard. It sufficed to finger a perfect chord in order that, by plucking only the three bass notes one could clearly perceive the harmonics of the other strings.

Price $8,400 SOLD September 10th 2016