1967 Arcángel Fernández SP/CY (ex Fred Noad)

This 1967 Arcángel Fernández is a spruce and cypress flamenco blanca from Madrid, owned for many years by the great guitar pedagogue Frederick Noad.

Frederick Noad's Arcángel

This example from 1967 was owned for many years by the great pedagogue Fred Noad, whose books taught generations of guitarists, and it is a masterful instrument, as is evident in the quality of workmanship and sound.

A Collectible That Performs

Although definitely a collectible piece, it is a very strong performing guitar as well, with a bright and percussive sound. Like all great Arcángels, the basses have impressive richness and body, and the trebles have a "cutting" yet lyrical quality. A highly desirable guitar from a maker whose instruments are becoming increasingly rare.

Arcángel Fernández: Flamenco Guitar Maker of Madrid

Arcángel Fernández (born 1932) is one of the best and most famed Spanish luthiers of both flamenco and classical guitars of the latter half of the twentieth century. He came to the guitar from cabinet making, and in 1954 he became the assistant of Marcelo Barbero – then the finest maker in Madrid – preparing woods and finishing instruments. He was the only person ever to apprentice with Barbero. When his master died in March 1956, Arcángel completed the guitars left unfinished in the shop and for about a year went on building for Barbero's widow.

His Own Workshop in Lavapiés

He then opened his own workshop at Jesús y María 26, a couple of blocks from Barbero's old shop in Madrid's Lavapiés quarter. There he took in Barbero's young son, Marcelo Barbero Hijo, taught him everything he had learned from the father, and worked side by side with him for some forty years. Like his master, Arcángel played an integral role in defining the archetypal flamenco guitar – light, fast and powerful, with a loose, dry and woody "old world" sound – which still serves as the model for flamenco luthiers chasing that classic mid-century sound. He built only a small number of guitars each year, in his later decades almost exclusively for collectors in Japan, until demand grew so great that he stopped taking orders. In 2011 he retired to the Canary Islands.

Books on Arcángel Fernández

A 1962 Arcángel Fernández is one of the guitars reproduced in Alberto Martínez's book "34 Classical Guitars in Life Size", with photographs and full-size drawings of each instrument:

34 Classical Guitars in Life Size