CLASSIC GUITARS

Miguel
Rodriguez
Jr.’s 1973
Churchdoor
Guitar
 GATEWAY TO A
HEAVENLY SOUND
It is the stuff of legend: In the early 1970s,
master luthier Miguel Rodriguez Jr. jour-
neyed from his home in Córdoba, Spain, to
Granada, where he saw a work crew carting a
massive rosewood church door off its rotted
hinges. Rodriguez seized the door, and from it
came the most iconic guitars ever crafted by
his illustrious family.
Today, the “Rodriguez” model—part
of American guitar company Córdoba’s
2014 Master Series—replicates Miguel
Jr.’s “Churchdoor” guitar, renowned
for its warm tone and powerful sound.
A classical guitar with flamenco-like
response, the Rodriguez is bigger than the
traditional Torres nylon-string guitar, but
lightweight for its size. “The strings have
remarkable recovery,” says Tim Miklaucic,
owner and CEO of Córdoba Guitar Group
and Guitar Salon International. “You pull the
string like a bow, and it snaps back immedi-
ately, allowing you to play quickly, easily, and
accurately.”
While Córdoba was perfecting and refining
its Rodriguez model, Miklaucic discovered an
original Miguel Rodriguez Churchdoor guitar
for sale—the 1973 model pictured here that
was built for famed Spanish guitarist Celedo-
nio Romero. Interestingly, this Churchdoor
guitar never reached its intended owner—
instead, it was intercepted and acquired by
flamenco singer Naranjito de Triana. Upon de
Triana’s death, the guitar passed to a private
Miguel Rodriguez Jr.’s 1973 Churchdoor Guitar
1973 Churchdoor guitar is part of a line
that inspired Córdoba’s Rodriguez model
owner and then to Miklaucic. The instrument
is a sister to the fabled “La Wonderful,” the
Churchdoor guitar Miguel Jr. crafted for Cel-
edonio’s son, guitarist Pepe Romero.
GSI president David Collett notes that the
tales of these two family trees—the luthier
Rodriguezes and guitar-playing Romeros—
are entwined in the Churchdoor saga.
“The families were close. As the Romero
children grew up, the Rodriguez family was
building guitars in the same region of Spain.
As their paths crossed, a fascinating interplay
between builder and player emerged, which
was critical in the evolution of the Rodriguez
style,” Collett says. Familiarity led to admira-
tion. When Pepe Romero said, “What the jet
engine did for aviation, the Rodriguez family
did for the guitar,” he was referring to the
changes wrought by Miguel Jr., son of patri-
arch Miguel Sr.
“[Miguel Jr.] made the guitar box bigger. He
did more work in the thinning of the top, and
added more doming and tension. There are
many strategies he combined which give the
Rodgriguez its unique sound,” Miklaucic says,
adding that Córdoba continues Miguel Jr.’s
legacy of innovation.
Modern refinements in the Master Series
line include a truss rod, geared tuning
machines, and string length scaled down to
650 millimeters.
Miklaucic notes that though Córdoba’s
Rodriguez model “contains the spirit and DNA”
PHOTOS BY FELIX SALAZAR, COURTESY OF GUITAR SALON INTERNATIONAL
BY PAT MORAN
of the Rodriguez Churchdoor, it was not crafted
from the limited supply of rosewood that
Miguel Jr. discovered at that fabled church in
Granada.
Yet is that romantic tale of the Church-
door’s genesis true?
According to Collett, the actual story is
more prosaic. “Miguel Jr.’s son, also named
Pepe, was the marketing expert in the Rodri-
guez family—the idea guy,” says Collett.
“He was always coming up with funny
names for the materials they were working
with—‘Pata Negra,’ for some dark, straight-
grained rosewood they had, or ‘Sangre de
León,’ for a reddish stain they would some-
times mix in the varnish. ‘Churchdoor,’ in
reference to this wild-looking rosewood, was
just one of these quips.
“It was in the resale market that the leg-
endary stories started to emerge,” Collett
adds. Yet he believes that the final word on
the Churchdoor legend should rest with Pepe
Romero, perhaps the player most familiar
with the guitar’s power.
“Pepe told me that it’s also a ‘churchdoor’
in the sense that it’s a portal to a sacred musi-
cal place,” Collett says. “He feels uniquely
inspired and transformed when he has one of
these guitars on his lap.”
Pat Moran lives in North Carolina where he writes
about music, art, and film. This article orginally
appeared in the June 2014 issue of Acoustic Guitar.