1966 "Jose" David Rubio SP/CSAR

David Rubio built this classical guitar in New York in 1966, as "Jose" Rubio, with a spruce soundboard and CSA rosewood back and sides – with deluxe double purfling and no repairs.

In the videos above, Jan Depreter plays his "Moreliana – Homage to Sergei Rachmaninov", Scott Tennant and Marcelo Kayath play Segovia's "Divertimento" (with Segovia's 1969 Ramírez), and Milena Petkovic and Branko Barnic play Vojislav Ivanovic's "Balkan Express" on this and another 1966 Rubio.

Rubio in the Bream Years

This guitar comes from the very period of Rubio's work with Julian Bream, who played Rubio guitars made in 1965 and 1966, before Rubio went home to England. Its sound is bold, with excellent power, very even and balanced across the registers, and with the beauty and lyricism Rubio is known for.

Double Purfling and Condition

A particularly beautiful example, it has a thicker, slightly more deluxe double purfling throughout, which gives it a unique and very tasteful, if subtle, look. There are no known repairs or cracks – only normal playing wear.

David Rubio: From Flamenco Guitarist to Master Instrument Maker

David Rubio (1934–2000) is arguably the most important guitar maker to emerge from England, and the founding father of the English school. Born David Spink and raised in London, he studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin, then left for Spain, where he earned his living as a flamenco guitarist accompanying singers and dancers – and picked up the nickname "Rubio" for his red beard. A touring flamenco company brought him to New York, where, from what he had seen in the guitar shops of Spain, he taught himself to build guitars under the name "Jose" Rubio. Within a few years Julian Bream was playing his instruments.

Guitars, Lutes, Harpsichords and Violins

Rubio returned to England in 1967 and, from workshops near Oxford and, from 1979, in Cambridge, built a remarkably wide range of instruments: guitars and lutes, harpsichords, baroque and modern violins, violas and cellos. In the late 1960s and 1970s he trained three young makers in his methods – Kazuo Sato, Edward B. Jones and Paul Fischer – who built guitars of his design marked with their initials. Late in his life he developed a radical 8-string guitar, the "Brahms" model, with Paul Galbraith. He died in Cambridge on October 21, 2000, leaving more than a thousand instruments.