1947 Marcelo Barbero w/pegs SP/CSAR

A rare 1947 classical guitar with pegs by Marcelo Barbero, with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, made in Madrid soon after he finished the last guitars of Santos Hernández.

A Peghead Classical from Barbero's Best Years

The best-known Barbero instruments are the flamencos he made from the mid-1940s until his death, but on occasion he built an outstanding classical, such as this rare peghead example. It comes from a very important period for him, right after his time completing the unfinished guitars in the workshop of Santos Hernández, when Barbero had truly hit his peak – a level he kept until his untimely death just nine years later.

"The More of a Flamenco a Guitar Is…"

A very memorable quote came from Pepe Romero once, after we asked him what his favorite kind of "classical guitar" was. His answer: "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 overtones, silky layering in the sound and great depth and warmth across all registers, blended with the energy and responsiveness of a flamenco: a super lightweight build yielding a powerful, energetic response to every note. Other outstanding qualities 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

Condition is amazing – only a few very small, well-repaired cracks in the sides, up close to the neck in the upper bout. Otherwise it is in fantastic, original condition. This is Barbero at his finest: a real masterpiece of classical guitar making history.

Marcelo Barbero: The Stradivari of Lavapiés

Marcelo Barbero (c. 1904–1956) is regarded as one of the greatest Spanish guitar makers of the 20th century and, above all, as the archetypal maker of the flamenco guitar. Born in Madrid to a poor family and orphaned as a boy, he learned the trade in the workshop of José Ramírez I and went on working under José Ramírez II. He had a colorful life outside the shop too – boxer, racing cyclist and flamenco singer in the tablaos of Madrid – yet he never played the guitar himself; his designs grew out of his own experience and the constant feedback of the best players of the day.

Completing the Last Guitars of Santos Hernández

After Santos Hernández died in March 1943, his widow, Matilde Ruiz López, called on Barbero to finish the guitars Santos had left uncompleted in his workshop at Aduana 23 – work that kept him busy for about three years and gave him a unique, first-hand look at the methods of the great master. Santos's influence shows in the heads, rosettes and proportions of Barbero's guitars of the 1940s; from around the end of 1948 he developed a model of his own, with a new outline, head, rosette, bracing and bridge.

Barbero's Flamenco Guitars and Legacy

Barbero's own shop was in Lavapiés, the old quarter of Madrid near the flamenco tablaos, and he built only to order, for players in Spain and as far away as England, South America, Germany, Italy and Japan. His most famous guitar, from 1951, was made for Carlos Montoya and ended up with Sabicas, who recorded on it for the albums later issued as "Flamenco Puro". In the 1950s he moved toward a fuller, more austere and almost classical voice, with slightly thicker woods and a thin bar across the top under the bridge. He died on March 6, 1956, mourned in the Madrid press as the "Stradivari of Lavapiés". His only real pupil and successor was Arcángel Fernández, who later trained Barbero's son, Marcelo Barbero Hijo.