In addition to being the world's leader in classical guitar string sales, Albert Augustine Ltd. is responsible for several annual New York guitar series held at the Manhattan School of Music, the Spanish Institute and other important venues.

Furthermore, Albert Augustine Ltd. has shown its unwavering commitment to the advancement of the classical guitar by commissioning hundreds of original solo and chamber works -- as well as concertos -- from some of the foremost contemporary composers.

Albert Augustine's donations of thousands of dollars for scholarships, special artist's projects and guitar festivals remains unmatched by any other guitar organization around the world.

And, of course, Albert Augustine Ltd. is responsible for Guitar Review magazine, regarded by most as the world's most prestigious classical guitar publication.

	Ivor Mairants

I am indebted to Rose Augustine for relating to me the first hand account of how her late husband, Albert Augustine, and Segovia engineered the early development of nylon guitar strings.

Albert Augustine, who was born in Denmark in 1900, emigrated to the US in 1926-7 to pursue his trade of guitar-making, marrying Rose in 1928. His guitar-constructing business also entailed his making some experiments with strings but no more than that. Nearly 20 years had passed when Segovia, who was then in the United States, happened to be a guest at a function, and there, in conversation with some diplomats, deplored the shortage of good guitar strings, mentioning that he had almost run out of his Pirastro gut strings.

General Lindeman, a member of the British Embassy, asked Segovia which strings he needed most urgently and he replied "the gut strings, and especially the prima.

They met again a month later and the General, true to his promise, presented Segovia with some nylon strings which he had obtained from some members of the DuPont family who were his friends. Segovia fitted a string to his guitar and when it reached the correct pitch, it produced a clear sound but with a faint metallic accent which distinguished it from the sound of a gut string, a fault which he hoped could eventually be corrected.

Albert Augustine (left) with Andrés Segovia

Then during 1946, Vladimir Bobri, editor of the Guitar Review and friend of both Segovia and Albert Augustine, introduced them to one another and at the meeting, the guitarist asked the luthier to make him some nylon strings. Mr. Augustine, seeing the nylon first string on Segovia's guitar, remembered that two years previously he had found some nylon thread in a bundle of war surplus, and had, in fact, experimented with the nylon thread, using it as a substitute for gut, but, as a guitar maker, he was not at all keen to give up valuable time for string-making.

In the meantime, Segovia received the information that although DuPont could not be persuaded to undertake the manufacture of guitar strings for the trade, they promised to supply the necessary plastic material to anyone who would seriously undertake the task of making the strings. Well, at the second meeting between Segovia and Augustine, Albert, with the support of his wife Rose, agreed to make the strings for Segovia and thus began a lone uphill struggle in which he did not submit to any dissuasion from the skeptics, who included the DuPont experts.

After about three years of work, Augustine was, at last, satisfied with the results, and requested DuPont to assemble three players to hear the difference between the original nylon, the gut, and Augustine's specially treated nylon first string. The experts had no difficulty and their judgment was unanimous - the treated nylon made a big improvement to the tone of the guitar. DuPont, too, were very impressed and from then on, Augustine strings have received DuPont's unstinted help.

Now to send them to Segovia for his opinion. He was then in Washington and received the strings in the afternoon before a concert. As luck would have it, he broke a first string, which he eagerly changed in order to be able to use the newly-arrived strings for the concert. He became so excited at the sound that, after the concert, he immediately returned to the house at which he was staying as the honored guest of two old ladies, and made a beeline for his bedroom so that he could continue exploring the pleasures of the sounds produced by the new string.

	Albert Augustine

Having made good progress with the treble strings, Augustine struggled hard to produce bass strings but the wound strings continued to be a great problem. They were either unstable, toneless or their windings would loosen; they also squeaked. It took Augustine four hours to wind the first bass string and eventually, after changing the metal thread many times (using successively copper, silver, 14-carat gold, aluminum and stainless steel) and smoothing and polishing the silver strings until his hands literally bled, he produced his first successful nylon-wound strings.

Segovia's gratitude to Albert Augustine for this achievement 'reflects that of all guitarists today', and it is not for nothing that the strings have always received Segovia's endorsement.

There is also another endorsement which hangs in the Augustine office. It consists of a specially-selected spruce guitar top with the inscription 'This guitar masterpiece of Albert Augustine belongs to me. I will praise it with loud speaker through the world'. signed A. Segovia, March 1956; and thereby hangs the top of the unfinished guitar that Segovia had requested Augustine to make, but which only reached the first stage. In 1948 Albert Augustine suffered his first heart attack, but recovered to see the fruits of his labor, then succumbed to a second attack from which he died in April 1967.

The business was continued under the capable direction of Rose Augustine, who was no newcomer to strings, guitars, or hard work. Besides undertaking the string-making responsibility she recalled the assistant who used to work for her husband and had learnt the craft of guitar construction from him.

Herman Hauser

His name is Frank Haselbacher, an American of Austrian parentage now in his 50s, who works on his own, producing only a few guitars a year. I had the privilege of comparing three of his guitars, made respectively in 1971/2 and 3. 1 was so favorably impressed that I asked for my name to be added to the waiting list. It is the favorite guitar of Carlos Barbosa-Lima, the brilliant Brazilian concert guitarist, who used it at his London recitals. One of Albert Augustine's most prized possessions was a classical guitar made by Herman Hauser in 1941 and one which Segovia would have loved dearly to possess, but with which Augustine would never part company. I can honestly say that I have never played on a guitar with the unique tonal qualities and perfect string action of that most exceptional instrument. More than that one cannot say in praise of it. [Ed note: This is the guitar Rose Augustine has lent to Julian Bream and which he has been using for the past few years in his concerts.]

Incidentally, my wife and I intended to pay a short visit to the Augustine factory, but there was such immediate rapport between Rose Augustine and ourselves that we stayed for six hours (with a break for lunch) being fed delicious hot corned beef sandwiches on rye and no salt-beef sandwiches ever tasted better.

There are many guitar makers in the US whose instruments reach various degrees of excellence, but with guitars as with other things, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In New York there is Manouk Papasian; not far away is Michael Gurian, and Manuel Velasquez, is now back again in New York from Puerto Rico. Apart from the Big Three manufacturers, i.e. Martin Gibson and Guild, there aren't many private makers dotted around the US, but very few of their guitars have come across to Europe or have been heard on the concert platform.

Mention must be made of the Guitar Review, the most artistic and informative of all guitar magazines. Its contents are an encyclopedia of information about the guitar both historical and musical.