BENNO STREU 01 – The SECRET BRIDGE of Torres
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Loading ...Posted on: October 1, 2009
Posted in: Acoustic Luthier, Custom Acoustic Guitar, Custom Guitar Making, Custom Guitar Video, Featured
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In 1991 the famous “La Leona” of Antonio de Torres FE04 (1856) reappeared to the public eye. In an almost thriller-like endeavor a German Collector traveled to Barcelona, Spain to buy a vintage classical guitar with a suitcase full of cash money. The guitar was in an extremely bad condition. Dipl. Ing. Benno Streu from Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany was one of the first to see the newly discovered treasure.
In Benno Streu’s attempt to bring the famous “lioness” back to life, he not only saved an outstanding guitar from falling apart, he also discovered a couple of extremely interesting facts of the way Torres approached guitar building. Custom Guitar Video met Dipl. Ing. Benno Streu in June 2005, two years before his unexpected death. We are extremely thankful and glad that he shared some of his extensive knowledge with us, because his plans to write a book never came to happen.
In the first part of the Benno Streu installment we are encountering a conversation between classical guitar virtuoso Wulfin Lieske (www.wulfin-lieske.de) who regularly plays La Leona. Wulfin tries to find out why there is a buzzing issue with the low E-string. Even if the conversation does not lead to the problem solution, we learn about the special way the bridge is constructed on this guitar.
“The very special bridge on the La Leona of Antonio de Torres could lead to the assumption that this is the legendary “secret bridge” of Torres. The advantage of this bridge in comparison with the standard bridge of today is the extreme low energy loss of this construction, because there are no long “dead” string length and no yielding loops and knots. The disadvantage is the fixed position of the string. It is not possible to change the string action by changing the saddle height. No doubt, the flexibility of the modern bridge with saddle was one of the reasons for its preference, even for Torres.” (Benno K. Streu, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995)
The second half of this feature presents Benno Streu talking about how he restored the famous guitar.
