When I first started building guitars I would order my materials online. At the time, it was an extremely exciting process to wait and see what would arrive. As I progressed as a guitar builder I began to see how different every piece of wood can be, even within the same species or furthermore cut from the exact same tree. With that realisation came the desire to have more control over the woods I was buying, and I decided quite early in my career that it is preferable to choose the woods in person. Therefore when I was about 25 I set out to visit my first tonewood supplier.
I chose a supplier in Spain I had previously bought from called EAG International. I partly chose Spain to satisfy a sense of adventure I had at the time, and afterall Spain is the original home of the guitar. It seemed to me that with the expensive train tickets in the UK, and the more expensive prices of wood in the UK, it was actually cheaper overall to travel to Spain to select the wood. So I set off to Spain one Friday with the idea of getting things done and being back in the workshop on Monday. I had recently read a book called “Let the Wood Speak” by Paul Fischer, where he describes similar weekend trips to Brazil to select wood, so I felt very professional.
With my terribly limited Spanish and the assistance of google maps, I went by bus to an industrial park on the outskirts of Valencia. Industrial parks are apparently the same everywhere, I could have been in England, aside from the heat. I almost couldn’t find the warehouse, as every warehouse there looked the same and there was no name on this one. It was so sunny and hot outside, that the small entranceway into the warehouse appeared pitch black. However there were milled tree trunks outside and the strong smell of cedar; it seemed like the place so I went inside.
It was a large warehouse completely full of wood. I had specified roughly what quantity of which woods, and of which grades I wanted to buy, and the manager, Eveherardo, had prepared various stacks for me to choose through. I eagerly sorted through them under his watchful eye, with him pointing out some of the best examples, shaking his head with some of the worse ones, and telling me what he felt guitar makers usually want. It seemed like I must have been choosing for one or two hours, after which his assistant quickly packed up the wood, which would be sent by post to me in England. I paid, feeling slightly queasy because it was more than I’d ever paid for anything in one go, and then Eveherardo took me to a nearby cafe for lunch.
Eveherardo explained that this is a popular cafe for the nearby workers, who work around the industrial estate. It was really small, and extremely Spanish. No one spoke English, which was exciting for me as a relatively new traveller. We had a three course lunch and Eveherardo asked about the tonewood and guitar making situation in England and told me about his travels (anyone who specialises in exotic wood must be a traveller to an extent) and he spoke about his family. He also gave me some business tips which I try and hold to. I felt lucky to have briefly made contact with Eveherardo and Spanish life.
I believe this was a trip which kicked off my passion for flamenco music. I saw a flamenco show, even though Eveherardo told me the flamenco shows in the south were the real deal rather than in Valencia.