{"id":11867,"date":"2018-12-18T15:38:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T23:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=11867"},"modified":"2018-12-18T15:38:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T23:38:16","slug":"pepe-romero-jr-is-following-in-the-family-tradition-but-in-his-own-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/pepe-romero-jr-is-following-in-the-family-tradition-but-in-his-own-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Pepe Romero Jr. is Following in the Family Tradition\u2014But  in His Own Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>BY KATHLEEN A. BERGERON<\/h6>\n<p>When you grow up in \u201cthe royal family of the Spanish guitar,\u201d you know the instrument holds an honored place in your family\u2019s history.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe guitar is more than an instrument to my family. It is a way of life, it is an escape, it is a way to express yourself, it is a way to survive, it is a way to find happiness, it is a mystery and an adventure. It took my family\u2014my grandparents, my father and uncles\u2014from poverty, and gave my generation a comfortable upbringing.\u201d Pepe Romero Jr. speaks as someone who grew up with guitars all around him. Now, in his Oceanside, California, studio, just a few minutes\u2019 drive from Pacific beaches, he handcrafts his own versions of the instrument.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Along the wall above his workstation are a dozen record album covers with images of his father and others in the famous Los Romeros family quartet. One is tempted to imagine that their smiles are for him as he works on yet another stunning example of the tools of their trade.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In fact, it was not that long ago that many expected Pepe Romero Jr. to become a professional guitarist, following in the footsteps of his father, Pepe Sr., his grandfather, Celedonio, and his uncles, Angel and Celin. Everything was there for him\u2014all four of the men were guitar teachers, willing to give instruction. And there was certainly no problem finding a suitable instrument to play, as the family\u2019s collection of classical guitars rivals any personal collection on earth. A 1981 <i>New York Times<\/i> article described, \u201c3-year old Pepe Romero Jr., who recently announced to his mother, \u2018I\u2019m a guitarist!\u2019 Although he makes sounds on the instrument, he doesn\u2019t yet know how to play pieces.\u201d Asked at the time about his son\u2019s statement, Pepe Sr. said, \u201cHe believes he is a guitarist; that is the important thing. In order to play, you must believe you can play. Most people, as they get older, first learn to play, and then comes the realization that they are a guitarist. For my son, the most difficult part is already done. He believes he is a guitarist. Now the rest is easy. All he has to do is learn how to play.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And learn he did. Videos of his talent with the instrument are readily available on the internet. Learning to play and dedicating oneself to performing professionally are two separate things, however. Pepe Jr.\u2019s cousins Celino and Lito (sons of Celin and Angel respectively) did both, and now, with Pepe Sr. and Celin, make up the current iteration of the Romero quartet.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Pepe Romero Jr playing his guitar #260\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fZziiKXExfg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But for Pepe Jr. there were other aspects to consider. Growing up in a family of musicians, he also saw the not-so-glamorous side of playing professionally: Being on the road for months at a time; nights spent in hotel rooms and eating hotel food; endlessly chasing trains, planes, and automobiles to get to the next performance; and most of all, being away from loved ones, sometimes unable to see milestones in their children\u2019s lives. And once they did get back home, spending much of that time practicing, teaching, or arranging music for the next tour.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, when I was growing up, my father was gone a lot,\u201d Pepe says. \u201cBut I never did resent that. I knew that that was his life. When he was home, we would spend a lot of time together. He would take me to play tennis and soccer. In the mornings, we would go for breakfast on the way to school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/luthier.peperomero.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/pepe04b.jpg?resize=349%2C248\" width=\"349\" height=\"248\" \/>Pepe remembers sitting on his father\u2019s lap when he was between three and six years old, while Pepe Sr. taught private lessons at home. \u201cHe would ask them to play, then he would ask me to analyze their playing. He also took me to many of his master classes at universities and music festivals all over the world. I never liked the part about not getting to see him enough, but I didn\u2019t hold that against him. I just grew up knowing that I didn\u2019t want that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What young Pepe <i>did<\/i> like was woodworking. In high school, the rule was that kids could take shop class for, at most, two semesters. But Pepe asked for and received permission to take shop class during his entire high school career. And when grandfather Celedonio saw the beautiful box Pepe entered in a local competition (and won), he pronounced his grandson a natural guitar maker.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know how he came up with that,\u201d Pepe says today. \u201cIt was a pretty simple little box.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, when Celedonio was hospitalized with cancer, young Pepe visited him as often as he could. On one occasion, he told his grandfather, \u201cI have to leave now; I have a major test to take at school.\u201d Celedonio replied, \u201cPepe, when are you going to give up that school and come over to my house and make guitars?\u201d But the teenager couldn\u2019t envision a career making guitars. Not yet, at least. Celedonio died in 1996, during Pepe\u2019s senior year in high school.<\/p>\n<p>It was on a trip later that summer that things changed. His father had a performance scheduled in Bellingham, Washington, and took Pepe with him. The work Pepe Sr. chose to play for the event was one of Celedonio\u2019s concertos. Backstage, after the concert, his father introduced young Pepe to master luthier Dake Traphagen. Traphagen invited him to his workshop to build a guitar under his supervision. Reflecting on how his grandfather always encouraged him, especially toward building guitars, Pepe took Traphagen up on his invitation, flying up to Washington state shortly after Christmas. This, Pepe thought, would be his one and only guitar build, and he would dedicate it to his grandfather. The project went well, taking about a month to finish.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Pepe Romero Sr. Playing Pepe Romero Jr. Guitar\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SJ6OV9Zv3o0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when we had completed the guitar and went to string it, something happened to me,\u201d Pepe says. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to describe\u2014I had an epiphany. I got dizzy. I was emotionally overcome. I had to lie down on the floor. At that instant, I knew what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to build guitars. My dad was on tour in Spain, but I called him up and told him what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A week after his return from Europe, Pepe Sr. asked his mother, Celedonio\u2019s widow, to attend his next performance in Sacramento, California. There he performed with his pianist daughter, Angelina. When the audience called for an encore, young Pepe made his first guest appearance, playing \u201cSoleares,\u201d from Celedonio\u2019s <i>Suite Andaluza<\/i>. One of the stars of the show was the new guitar Pepe had completed the month before and named \u201cAngelita,\u201d for his grandmother.<\/p>\n<p>Pepe went on to study with some of the most skilled guitar builders and restorers in the world, including Edmund Bl\u00f6chinger, Jose Romanillos, Miguel Rodr\u00edguez, Manuel Contreras II, and Yuris Zeltins.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still, Pepe knows the critical role his father played in his training. \u201cThe reason I got to study with these great masters is that they were friends with my father. Think of that: To say to someone, \u2018Can my son study with you?\u2019 That is a huge \u2018ask.\u2019 It was a real blessing, and a gift from my father.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Pepe notes, \u201cI would like to credit my father\u2019s guitar collection and countless hours of studying those guitars, along with countless hours of playing and discussing them with my father and Uncle Celin, as one the biggest parts of my education. Their input and time spent with those guitars taught me <i>so<\/i> much.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/luthier.peperomero.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/240_back_big.jpg?resize=400%2C600\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">#240 Spruce Top Rosewood Back &amp; Sides<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One might think that having such a wealth of teachers might be overkill. Not according to Pepe Jr. \u201cOne benefit was in bringing me into the guitar-building world with an open mind. I was able to take what I liked from each. Learning under so many masters taught me that there isn\u2019t just one way to make a world-class instrument. Any one of those teachers would have been good. But having them all gave me a tremendous perspective. And it was an amazing education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Pepe had been building guitars for a while, when one day, David Collett of Guitar Salon International called and said he had just acquired an unusual Miguel Rodriguez guitar: Rather than having the typical fan bracing radiating from the soundhole area to the lower bout, this instrument had the bracing reversed. Pepe called his father, who excitedly said he\u2019d heard about such guitars but had never gotten to play one. Pepe Jr. ended up buying the guitar, and he spent months studying it. He incorporated the reverse fan bracing approach, and it is now a standard feature of all Pepe Romero guitars. He has built 130 guitars with that feature, some with a five-piece fan brace, others with seven. His instruments have rounded soundboards, as well, and he credits that combination for giving the instruments more clarity, sustain, and overtones.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pepe says he would not have tried the reverse fan bracing approach had he not had such good training in the basics of guitar building. \u201cIt is important to learn how to first build the traditional guitar, then later try new things. I\u2019m always looking for ways to make the guitar sound better. It\u2019s all about the sound.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In addition to supporting young Pepe with training by some of the greatest living luthiers, his father provided assistance in another way. When a young luthier starts out, he\/she usually has limited materials and no customers. So Pepe Sr. helped him invest in a stockpile of great woods for guitar making\u2014not an inexpensive undertaking.<\/p>\n<p>Pepe Sr. came up with another idea that helped the business and also demonstrated his support: To pay his father back for his investment, young Pepe would build every tenth guitar for his father. So his father would get number ten, 20, 30, and so forth. They called it \u201cthe Zeroes Collection\u201d because the numbers of all the instruments in it end in a zero.<\/p>\n<p>After Pepe finished the 100th guitar, his father told him his debt was paid and that Pepe Jr. was now the owner of the collection. The only thing his father asked was that he continue building the collection and allow him access to all of the guitars. They agreed that Pepe Sr. could play any of the instruments at any time, and he often takes one of the instruments on the road with him to performances. Sometimes, other family members will borrow one of the guitars from the Zeroes Collection, but Pepe has also made instruments specifically for them. Recently, they have allowed some of the instruments from the collection to go up for sale, but Pepe still builds every tenth guitar for his father.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/luthier.peperomero.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/pepe05.jpg?resize=1170%2C939\" width=\"1170\" height=\"939\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In 2013, Pepe and Yoshi Oshima, a guitarist who studied with the Romeros and plays only Pepe\u2019s instruments, published a 56-page booklet in English and Japanese, showing the 22 instruments that were in the Zeroes Collection at the time. It is probably among the most beautiful \u201cinventories\u201d anyone has ever created. Today, the number in the collection is up to 30 (including Number 1, which is not really a \u201czero,\u201d but is in the collection nonetheless), and Pepe has completed 299 guitars overall. Number 300, which also will go into the collection, is sitting on his workbench now. Although it is a beautiful instrument, with a spectacular set of Hawaiian koa for the back and sides, it has none of the decorative trappings builders sometimes attach to special commemorative instruments, such as inlays of silver, abalone, mother of pearl, and the like. Pepe says, \u201cIt is all about the sound and wood selection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Zeroes Collection booklet reveals more about the builder than just the variety of materials and the beauty of the craftsmanship. Several of the descriptions include notes about the source of certain elements in the guitars. Guitar #1, for example, has a note saying \u201cEngleman Spruce Top (gift from Contreras).\u201d Guitars #10 and 20 have \u201cbutt decoration, gift from Romanillos.\u201d<br \/>\nGuitar #70 says \u201cEuropean Spruce Top (gift from Rodriguez)\u201d and \u201cRosewood Back and Sides (gift from Bob Taylor) [the noted American acoustic-guitar luthier].\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When asked about it, Pepe says, \u201cIt\u2019s unusual for guitar makers to give away such things, but these people and I have connected on a deeper level, and we have enjoyed friendships and sharing some special things.\u201d He also notes that #300 has an interesting addition: \u201ca German spruce top which Edmund Bl\u00f6chinger cut in December of 1999 at midnight of the new moon, ensuring the least upward gravitational pull from the moon, leaving more sap in the roots, and resulting in drier, lighter wood.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pepe personally makes about 15 instruments a year, and each gets a Pepe Romero label with an image of his grandfather on it, with the statement, \u201cDedicada a Celedonio Romero.\u201d Says Pepe, \u201cI dedicate every guitar that I build to my grandfather Celedonio, who never got to play a guitar of mine, but who I know is with me in spirit.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/luthier.peperomero.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/300_front_big.jpg?resize=400%2C600\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">#300: 2018 German Spruce Top Hawaiian Koa Back &amp; Sides<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As you get to the back of the Zeroes booklet, you see that there are ukuleles included, as well. These are of a quality equal to the guitars, using spruce, rosewood, flamed maple, koa, and other woods. The idea for delving into this area came in 2011, after a family vacation to Hawaii.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen my wife Kimberly and daughter Sophia asked me to build ukuleles, it was because they wanted ukes for themselves after we all fell in love with the instrument during our trip.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pepe approached the idea by basically making miniature versions of his classical guitar designs, including the reverse fan bracing\u2014but with four strings\u2014with all the time and effort he puts into an actual guitar. The craftsmanship and beautiful tone and resonance of the instruments has made them hugely popular.<\/p>\n<p>Handmade instruments are not inexpensive, of course, and there\u2019s a four-year waiting period for a Pepe Romero guitar. To allow more people the benefit of the knowledge he\u2019s spent decades developing, Pepe has started a separate company, Romero Creations, which uses the same design principles as his own handmade instruments, but are built by trained craftsmen in Vietnam, keeping costs lower. It\u2019s not unusual for luthiers to have a secondary line of instruments that are produced in other countries at lower cost, but often it is with a lower grade of materials, as well, and the quality of the instruments suffers. Pepe is determined not to allow this to happen with instruments bearing his name, so once the instruments are finished, they go to him for a final inspection and setup before being sent to the customer. He started with a line of ukuleles under the Romero Creations name, and, beginning in 2019, he will be adding classical guitars.<\/p>\n<p>When we consider what makes for a beautiful guitar performance, we think of the person playing and the instrument itself. The third element, which we often overlook, is the strings. But here, too, Pepe has put in effort because, again, \u201cIt\u2019s all about the sound.\u201d He and his father worked with the La Bella Company for several years to develop sets of strings, both for the type of instruments Pepe builds, as well as for the rare, vintage instruments in his family\u2019s collections\u201450-to-100-year-old instruments by Torres, Rodriguez, and the like.<\/p>\n<p>Now, at 40, Pepe looks back on 22 years of building beautiful, wondrous-sounding instruments, and he\u2019s as much in love with the guitar as ever\u2014and he looks forward to chasing that perfect sound for many decades to come. And there\u2019s another generation of Romero guitar-makers beyond Pepe already at work. His nephew, Bernardo, is building instruments in the shop now, learning from a master. When Bernardo first approached Pepe about building guitars, he was immediately welcomed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I told him, \u2018If you don\u2019t have a passion for it, don\u2019t do it. You have to really love this to be successful at it.\u2019\u201d Apparently, Bernardo does have that passion, for he has completed 25 beautiful instruments of his own over the past five years. Pepe says, \u201cHe is already working at the highest level, building world-class guitars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked to reflect on what the guitar means to him, Pepe says, \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have guitar-making I would be lost, professionally speaking. It\u2019s my passion, and it is the passion of many in our family. Yes, it is like a religion to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y9ML-FagZwc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY KATHLEEN A. BERGERON When you grow up in \u201cthe royal family of the Spanish guitar,\u201d you know the instrument holds an honored place in your family\u2019s history.\u00a0 \u201cThe guitar is more than an instrument to my family. It is a way of life, it is an escape, it is a way to express yourself, it is a way to survive, it is a way to find happiness, it is a mystery and an adventure. It took my family\u2014my grandparents, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/pepe-romero-jr-kathleen-bergeron-photo.jpg?fit=1500%2C1037&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}