1971 Manuel Velázquez SP/PF

This 1971 Manuel Velázquez is a spruce and pau ferro classical guitar – a transitional Velázquez between his 1960s guitars and the larger model of the 1970s.

A Transitional Velázquez

The bracing pattern comes from his 1960s work, but the box is larger and deeper, with the more rounded plantilla he used throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite the bigger body it is very lightweight, with a sound and response more reminiscent of Miguel Rodríguez than of Hauser – a guitar much more “Spanish” in character than his typical instruments.

Materials

The top is beautiful bearclaw spruce with tight cross-grain, the back and sides a very exotic set of pau ferro with an almost three-dimensional figure, and the label is the scroll label he used for the rest of his career – “Manuel Velázquez, Constructor de Guitarras, New York” – dated by hand and signed “Manuel Velázquez” across the center. The sleek neck is very easy to play.

Manuel Velázquez: An American Master in the Spanish Tradition

Manuel Velázquez (1917–2014) was born in Puerto Rico and made his name in New York, where his workshop at 420 Third Avenue became a meeting place for leading guitarists. He was perhaps the greatest American luthier to build in the European tradition, and his guitars yield nothing in craftsmanship or sound to those of his Spanish and German contemporaries. Over a career of nearly eight decades – in New York, Puerto Rico, Virginia and Florida – his instruments were played by Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, Pepe Romero, Rey de la Torre and Sabicas, and by musicians far beyond the classical world, from Earl Klugh to Paul Simon and Keith Richards.

The Velázquez Sound

Velázquez guitars are most often compared to those of Hermann Hauser I and Hermann Hauser II – not only in appearance but in the style of sound: great clarity and separation between voices, perfect balance, sparkling trebles over steady basses and a natural, beautiful “woody” quality of tone. Most of his guitars follow this compact, Hauser-like model; in the 1970s and early 1980s he also built a larger, more rounded body with a deeper box and an even bigger sound. His son Alfredo Velázquez, who learned the craft in his father’s workshop, continues the tradition.

Books on Manuel Velázquez

A 1978 Velázquez – a guitar that later passed through our hands – is reproduced in Alberto Martínez’s book “34 Classical Guitars in Life Size”, and a 1955 Velázquez from the Russell Cleveland collection appears in “The Classical Guitar – A Complete History”:

34 Classical Guitars in Life Size

The Classical Guitar – A Complete History