2011 Thomas Norwood "Santos" SP/IN

Thomas Norwood has been building guitars out of his atelier in Paris for over 40 years. Born and raised in Pasadena, CA, Tom moved to Paris in the mid-70's after he fell in love with the city during a bicycle tour through Europe. For several years Daniel Friederich had been recommending Tom's guitars to GSI and so on a trip to Paris in 2010, we were able to finally meet him and see the guitars he builds. At that time, Tom was making 3 models, all replicas of guitars that had made their strongest impressions on him over the years of his career. They are: a 1910 Manuel Ramirez, 1932 Domingo Esteso and 1935 Santos. All are built not only to the same specs and with the same woods and decorative details as the originals, but they are also built to sound as the originals would have sounded when first built. We ordered all 3 models, but decided to begin with the guitar that impressed Daniel Friederich the most - the 1935 Santos. And indeed this instrument does capture the charm, feel and certainly appearance of the original. Although only built in 2011, the sound is old, warm and very loose, so this is undoubtedly the most successful Santos replica we've seen to date. The guitar is great condition with only a small amount of playing wear in the finish.

Orfeo Magazine #7 - French School Luthiery