John Williams on Smallman guitars vs traditional Spanish-style classical guitars

Comments · 63

• LI

  @Lincoln12933 · 1 year ago

  I think the Smallman varies between sounding beautiful and plonky even within the same piece of music.

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• JO

  @johngiles132 · 6 months ago

  The first time I heard a Williams recording was his old (late 1960s, or thereabouts) recording of "Leyenda." It blew me away. The Fleta guitar is perfect for that piece. It's "Spanishy," especially in regard to the powerful and dramatic rasgueados. Williams made another recording of Leyenda in The Seville Concert, for which he used a Smallman guitar. Although that recording is very good, I prefer the "Spanishy" earlier recording.

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• RO

  @RobMacKillop1 · 10 months ago

  One of my more wealthy students turned up one day with a Smallman, which surprised me. After he played for twenty minutes in the smallish room, I had to ask him to stop as I was getting a real headache. He then played on my Simon Ambridge cypress Torres-style guitar, and he fell in love with it. The vast majority of us do not play in large or even small concert halls. Volume is not the priority. Listening to the Smallman, I felt assaulted, not embraced.

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• GI

  @gingerbeer914 · 1 year ago

  I've got a guitar from 1968 that was built by Julian Espinoza, who worked for Ignacio Fleta. It's quite heavily built and still in a very good condition. I could afford it, which cannot be said about a real Fleta.

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• FE

  @felisaroldan9008 · 1 year ago

  👏👏👏👏👏💯💓

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• UN

  @unwrought9757 · 1 year ago

  I had the opportunity to try Smallman 1992 guitar and although I have played many wonderful guitars, Smallman beats them all without any struggle. It was so astonishingly good that it was ridiculous. No guitar I have ever played or heard comes even close to Smallman.

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• SO

  @soundknight · 1 year ago (edited)

  I have a Richard Howell which is based on the Williams Fleta&apos;s (I believe), which our now owned by Jason Waldren in SA. They have a stunning design for traditional guitars, the secret is in the skill of 9 thin struts under the top and a cello like dovetail neck join.<br><br>I agree with Williams about this design of the traditional guitar ~ it is hard work but i prefer the texture over the melody. I don&apos;t like the lattice sound though, as Williams has said in other earlier interviews, the note shimmers like light through gum leaves. It does make easy work of melodies.<br>I think Williams sounded better when he was working harder to produce the music on a traditional guitar. I think he was great in the early days where he still had that hard working hands on a lattice too.

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• PE

  @pere_villez · 1 year ago (edited)

  that demo of the chord at 3.14 blew my mind. The tonal range and dynamics. My Pantoja does that too but a totally different musical application, though I can can&apos;t capture it with the sophistication of the maestro here. Thank you for the video

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• CH

  @Chiller11 · 1 year ago

  All of these absolute comments both for and against the Smallman sound are just subjective highly biased opinions. John Williams was a brilliant guitarist who was very expressive with his Smallman guitar. I was fortunate enough to hear him live on two occasions. I haven’t had the privilege of playing one myself but I enjoy the music created by Mr Williams immensely. Likewise I enjoy the music created by Julian Bream on his Romanillos and later his Hauser I. If you can’t enjoy the music created by talented artists on traditional fan braced, lattice braced, double tops or whatever then I feel sorry for you. Your life is more impoverished and your world is more narrow than it could be.

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• 20

  @2011Noud · 8 months ago

  I think as a guitarist you have to search for the instrument that suits you sound wise and <br>of course regarding a good playability. So in the end: A Greg Smallman might work for some <br>guitarists but at the same time maybe not for others. That being said you can hardly talk <br>about &quot;The best instrument in the World&quot;. Also strings can play an important role. They also <br>have to suit the instrument. John Williams remains an exceptional guitar player on whatever <br>guitar you give him!

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• TA

  @TaiChiBeMe · 1 year ago

  There’s a bit of “nasal” sound on the Smallman. I find the Spanish sound more beautiful. Also, someone like Williams needs to project loudly because of the large venues he played in. Most of us don’t require that kind of volume.

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• GE

  @GerryLopez69-t7r · 11 months ago

  lattice guitars often sound banjo like. williams said smallman tops work like drum skins which is exactly what a banjo is.

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