1958 Ignacio Fleta SP/IN

This 1958 Ignacio Fleta is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, made in Barcelona just three years after Fleta turned to guitar making full-time.

An Early Modern Fleta

In typical Fleta fashion for this period, it is made of spruce for the soundboard and Indian rosewood for the back and sides. It is already a modern Fleta in the sense that it has the 9 fans and double harmonic bars found in the later guitars, while the neck and body keep the more compact proportions of the 1950s – making it extremely comfortable to play.

Sound and Condition

The guitar does have some stable, well-executed repairs, including 3 small cleats under the top and a repair to the back using only glue. Sound-wise, this is one of the strongest, most powerful Fletas we have seen, and the tone is absolutely magical – rich in overtones and very firm across all registers. Yet another intriguing and extremely desirable Fleta.

Ignacio Fleta: Master Guitar Maker of Barcelona

For performers and collectors alike, the name Ignacio Fleta (1897–1977) ranks among the elite handful of 20th-century luthiers. Trained in Barcelona as a maker of violins and cellos, he built mainly bowed instruments from the late 1920s until 1955, when he decided to devote himself to the guitar. Countless scores of the finest players in the world have played his instruments – among them Andrés Segovia, John Williams, Angel Romero, Turibio Santos, Alirio Díaz and Marcelo Kayath.

Ignacio Fleta e Hijos: Three Generations

By the mid-1960s Fleta's sons, Francisco (1925–2003) and Gabriel (1929–2013), had become his partners in the workshop – which is why the labels from then on read "Ignacio Fleta e hijos" (Ignacio Fleta and sons). After Ignacio's death in 1977 the brothers carried on, and today Gabriel's son, Gabriel Fleta Jr., continues the family workshop in its third generation. Many dozens of Fletas have passed through our doors over the years.