1932 Domingo Esteso SP/CSAR

This guitar was made by Domingo Esteso, who along with fellow worker Santos Hernandez (from the Manuel Ramirez shop), was one of the greatest makers of the twentieth century. This guitar is one of the fancier models from Esteso, most noticeably with rosette of very fine quality. As striking as it appears, sound is also exquisite. It has a very clean, clear and pure quality to the sound, a very strong fundamental with very controlled overtones, and a very natural, "woody" quality of sound, very stylish, refined and alluring. The rich, played-in quality of sound is something that can only be found in an instrument of this vintage. In the hands, it feels very expressive and responsive to the most subtle of changes in the players touch. The sound is absolutely magical from the bottom-end to the highest registers. It was restored several years ago (to repair cracks and re-finish) by two luthiers - first by Yuris Zeltins who was unable to complete the work before his retirement, and then by one of Yuris' understudies, Pat Quinn, who did a fantastic job completing the work, and remains in the same condition today. A magical instrument from one of the finest makers of the early Madrid school in every way.

Luthier Bio: Domingo Esteso and the Conde dynasty