Information
Santos Hernandez - flamenco guitar
The historical importance of Santos Hernandez for the flamenco guitar is considered of equal importance as Antonio Torres (1817–1892) or as important as Antonio Stradivari for the violists.Santos Hernandez was born in Madrid in 1873. Upon completion of his military service in 1890s he went to work with the great luthier Ramirez.Santos Hernandez flamenco guitars were built in the tradition of Antonio Torres. The Santos guitars were designed for a strong attack and power, using the standard combination of spruce top and cypress body and projecting a very charming introspective tone.
X-bracing
The Martin company is generally credited with developing the X-bracing system during the 1850s, although C. F. Martin did not apply for a patent on the new bracing system. During the 1850s, X-bracing was used by several makers.The Martin company was the first to use X-bracing on a large scale. Martin modified the shape of their 12-fret 000-size instrument, lowering the waist and giving the upper bout more acute curves to cause the neck joint to fall at the 14th fret rather than the 12th. Fourteen-fret guitars were designed to be played with a pick and replace banjos in jazz orchestras.Thus, Martin named its first 14-fret, 000-shape guitar the Orchestra Model (OM). Martin applied this term to all 14-fret instruments in its catalogues by the mid- to late-1930s.
