Meet the instrument tuner keeping the traditions of tango music alive
Romualdi was Guttlein's childhood neighbor. When Guttlein was growing up, he observed the luthier with curiosity; in his twenties, Romualdi brought him into Los Tanos' workshop for the first time. 'It's a job you only learn by watching and listening,' Guttlein said. 'They were so generous with me.' At first, he fetched the elder luthiers' coffee, and swept the floors, and did just about every kind of job besides tuning. But he was good with his hands, having learned metalworking and carpentry from a young age, and he played the piano accordion. (Surprisingly, he has never learned the bandoneon, only built and repaired them). After only a few months in the workshop, he knew he'd found his calling.
He began traveling with his then-girlfriend—now wife—to tiny towns across Argentina, looking to buy old bandoneons long out of use. With help from Los Tanos, he would practice refining their sound and ultimately resell them to professional players, building his reputation. 'It was a big bet,' he said. 'This is a very small world, and if you screw up, people find out very quickly.'
Once they saw he was up to the task, Romualdi and Fabiani began to trust Guttlein with some of their own clients. He worked with them from the late 1990s up until 2005, when the old men retired from their workshop space and continued to tune sparingly from home. 'Ricardo worked until his very last day,' Guttlein said. 'He loved what he did.'
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Buzz Feed
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