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Marcelo Barbero (1904-1956) is regarded as one of the greatest luthiers of the 20th century. The most common and well-known of his instruments are the flamenco guitars he produced in the mid-1940's until is death, however he did on occassion build an outstanding classical, such as this rare peghead example presented here. This was a very important period for Barbero following the time he spent completing several unfinished Santos Hernandez guitars (Santos died in 1943) for Mathilde Ruiz, the widow of Santos. Not surprisingly, Barbero's instruments took on a strong resemblance to Santos after this stage of his career. This instrument was built at a period where Barbero had truly hit his peak, which he would retain until his untimely death just 9 years later.
A very memorable quote from Pepe Romero came once after we asked him what his favorite kind of "classical guitar" was. His answer was "the more of a flamenco a guitar is... the more of a guitar it is!" This is precisely the kind of guitar we have here - classical in tone with full-bodied overtone content, silky layering in the sound, great depth and warmth across all registers blended with the energy and responsiveness of a flamenco - super lightweight build yielding a powerful and energetic response to every note. Other outstanding qualities of this guitar are its vast color palette, incredibly sensitive dynamic range and perfectly even sustain all the way up the neck. This is truly one of the more phenomenal sounding guitars from his output that we have seen. Condition is amazing - only a few very small (well-repaired) cracks in the sides up close to the neck in the upper bout. Otherwise in fantastic, original condition. This is Barbero at his finest. A real masterpiece of classical guitar making history.
