2009 Federico Sheppard "1934 Esteso - ex Barrios" SP/CSAR

A 2009 "1934 Esteso – ex Barrios" classical guitar by Federico Sheppard, with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides – the replica shown at the Brussels exhibition in 2009.

In the videos above, Manuel Espinás plays Barrios's "Julia Florida" and Vals Op. 8 No. 3, and Billy Arcila plays "Dedication" on this guitar.

A Guitar with a Large Story

The original Domingo Esteso – reportedly Barrios's favorite – was bought from the Gravina 7 workshop around the turn of 1936, its rosette and purfling carrying the flags of Spain and Argentina. Barrios kept it until he died; it later passed through several hands and was damaged beyond restoration during the Salvadoran Civil War.

Shown in Brussels

This guitar was shown at the exhibition at the Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels for the 75th anniversary of Barrios's only formal European concert, on November 7, 1934. All its construction details come from the original, including tuners hand-made by Nicolò Alessi – a remarkable, unique instrument.

Federico Sheppard: Luthier and Barrios Scholar

Federico Sheppard was born in Mexico City in 1955 and grew up in Pittsburgh. A geologist and later a sports-medicine chiropractor, he has built guitars since the late 1970s, and today he divides his time between Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Carrión de los Condes in northern Spain, where his workshop occupies a thousand-year-old church that is also a guitar school and concert hall; there he founded the Asociación Caminoartes. He writes and lectures for the Guild of American Luthiers, and one of his guitars appears in Sheldon Urlik's "A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars".

The Guitars of Barrios and the Camino

Since 2005 Federico has studied the life and guitars of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. He has seen and measured the six main concert guitars Barrios played – two Simplicios, a "Morant", a José Ramírez I, a Sanfeliu and an Esteso – and builds replicas of them, inside and out. His "Camino" guitars draw on the art and pilgrim culture of the Camino de Santiago, which runs past his Spanish workshop.