Wednesday, August 2, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
GUITARS: Couple
builds double-body
guitars
Shelton and Farretta
worked out of four differ-
ent small shops in downtown
Portland before they relocated
to Alsea in 2005, where they
have a machine shop and an
assembly room next to their
home.
They build double classic,
double flamenco, classic and
flamenco guitars, ranging in
price from $3,000 to $4,600.
They use cedar, spruce,
cypress and various kinds of
rosewood, depending on the
type of guitar.
“We used to go out and get
the wood ourselves. Now I’m
75 and can’t do it anymore,”
Shelton said.
Either one of them can per-
form all of the tasks involved
in guitar building, Shelton
said. As a lifetime wood-
worker, he prefers to do all
of the sawing and work in the
machine shop and has all of
the measurements memorized.
Farretta opts to do the
bindings, linings and fine fit-
ting for the guitars.
Shelton and Farretta con-
sider themselves semiretired,
so they don’t build as many
guitars as they used to.
“We used to make 20 a
year. Now we’re down to six
or seven,” Shelton said.
“We now work two or
two and a half hours a day,
because if you work longer
than that you start making
mistakes, and we can’t have
mistakes,” Shelton said.
Continued from page 28
Mexico City.
As Farretta recalled,
Shelton told him, “I can’t
repair it, but give me some
time, and we’ll design a dou-
ble body that won’t fail.”
In 1981, Shelton designed
and built the guitar for López
Ramos.
From there Shelton-
Farretta began building dou-
ble body classical and fla-
menco guitars, including two
more for Ramos.
A double-body guitar is
essentially a guitar with a
shell over the back and sides.
The shell is attached to the
guitar at the neck, the end
block and along the sides. But
the shell and the guitar back
do not touch.
This shields the player’s
body from contacting the
back of the guitar, so it can
resonate freely. According to
their website, this gives the
guitar an unusual “presence.”
The site says, “These guitars
are very difficult to build and
use as much wood as two tra-
ditional guitars.”
Farretta said there may be
Spanish guitar makers who
design double bodies, but they
don’t know anyone else who
makes them.
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They still get orders from
national and international
buyers.
“We’ve sold everywhere
from Yemen to Hong Kong,”
he said.
Shelton calls building gui-
tars a labor of love.
“I don’t make a lot of
money with it, but it’s fun,”
he said.
Two years ago, Shelton
and Farretta made a new
acquaintance in the guitar
world, which will lead to
another new guitar they will
build.
They met Berto Boyd,
a flamenco guitarist, com-
poser and artistic director of
the Corvallis Guitar Society.
Carson Willie, a student of
Boyd’s, passed along a request
for Boyd to play guitar at a
funeral service for Margaret
Sparrow, who owned a
Shelton-Farretta guitar.
Shelton and Farretta
showed him Sparrow’s gui-
tar before he was set to play.
They built her the guitar in
1990.
“They pulled this guitar
from the case, and it was like
the Holy Grail,” Boyd said.
He ended up playing that
guitar, instead of the one he
brought.
“It was one of the most
profound musical experiences
that I’ve had,” Boyd said.
Afterwards, her family
gave the guitar to Willie, who
lent it to Boyd to perform
“The Spanish Guitar: From
the Streets to the Concert
Stage” in April 2016 at the
Majestic Theatre. The two
worked out a deal, and he
eventually gave the guitar to
Boyd.
“Luthiers like this in
Oregon making this level
of guitar is extremely rare,”
Boyd said.
Shelton-Farretta also cus-
tom-built a guitar for Boyd,
which he used last month to
perform at the Chintimini
Chamber Music Festival.
After the concert, Boyd
realized he needed a new
classical guitar. Shelton and
Farretta are set to build a gui-
tar for him that may be the
first of its kind, he said.
“They’re going to make a
double top, double body clas-
sical guitar for me. This is
cutting-edge,” Boyd said.
The double top guitar is
two tops sandwiched together.
In between them is a honey-
comb type of material called
Nomex, which makes the
29
guitar more stiff and creates
more projection, Boyd said.
The luthiers have seen
what a new style of guitar can
do for their business.
Farretta said, “This is the
Manuel LÛpez Ramos of the
new Shelton-Farretta age.
This is a whole new develop-
ment, and it’s revolutionary.”
Four of Boyd’s students
also own Shelton-Farretta
Guitars.
The couple has noticed an
increase in interest for their
guitars since meeting Boyd.
“We were still selling, but
not quite as fast,” Shelton
said. People interested in buy-
ing a Shelton-Farretta guitar
should expect to wait at least
a year, he said.
Boyd is determined to buy
one of every Shelton-Farretta
guitar they make.
“I’ve owned some very
high-end instruments from
Spain, but there is something
about their guitars that really
speaks to me that I love,”
Boyd said.
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