1964 Ignacio Fleta SP/IN

This 1964 Ignacio Fleta is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides from Fleta's Barcelona workshop – a fine-playing spruce-era Fleta with old, stable repairs.

A 1964 Ignacio Fleta

From 1964, this one follows the standard Fleta recipe of the period: spruce for the soundboard, Indian rosewood for the back and sides.

Sound and Playability

The sound is huge – deep and complex, with a vast dynamic range, fine balance and a firm fundamental that projects in larger venues. Many players find the slender neck shapes on Fleta from this period to be his easiest to play – and this guitar is no exception: it is easy on the hands and can be played comfortably over many hours in a single sitting.

Condition

The guitar does have some repairs done many years ago by Yuris Zeltins: two bookmatched back cracks, about two inches from the center seam, which are cleated internally. The top has two splices on either side of the fingerboard, repaired with great care – as a look at the underside shows, the original maple lining (a typical trait of Fleta's guitars) was left intact, preserving Fleta's original build and design from 1964. All repairs are stable and the guitar is in fine performing condition.

Overall, a great sounding and playing guitar from Fleta's golden 'spruce' era, the period of Segovia's and Williams' Fleta concerts and recordings.

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.