1981 Ignacio Fleta CD/IN (ex Marcelo Kayath)

This 1981 Ignacio Fleta is a classical guitar with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides – for many years the concert, competition and recording guitar of Marcelo Kayath.

Marcelo Kayath's 1981 Fleta

This particular instrument was previously owned by Marcelo Kayath. He won all his first-prize competitions with this guitar, including his two biggest – Toronto and Paris in 1984. It was also his main concert instrument for many years of touring. He used it on all six of his commercial LPs and CDs, and even performed on it for Andrés Segovia in the 1986 USC master classes.

From Turibio Santos – and a Lucky Label

Marcelo bought the guitar from his teacher, Turibio Santos, who also used it to record one of his albums. A note on the label: Turibio Santos scratched off the year 1981 and wrote "1964" over it, for some reason, at the time he purchased it from the Fleta shop. Marcelo always saw this as a sign of good luck, since 1964 is his birth year! But the guitar was made in 1981, as confirmed by the serial number both on the label and stamped into the internal heel.

Sound

Fleta is known for his unique approach to guitar making, bringing techniques and processes from his violin and cello training to the construction of his guitars – an approach his sons Francisco and Gabriel, who built this guitar four years after his death, carried on. The resulting sound is very haunting, dark and mysterious, making it wonderfully suited to contemporary, Spanish or South American repertoire, with superb sustain in virtually every register. This guitar is a maximum Fleta, and it is no wonder Marcelo chose to use it almost exclusively for the duration of his career.

Condition

The condition of the guitar is excellent, with no cracks or repairs of any kind. Apart from some very minor, superficial scratches on the top, Marcelo tells us that he had Francisco and Gabriel Fleta touch it up twice, and they slightly reshaped the neck for his left-hand comfort.

Few Fletas we have handled match its strength and power, and the tone is pure magic. Provenance, tone and condition all come together here – a Fleta that is extremely desirable by any standard.

To hear Marcelo playing it, see the videos below or visit his YouTube page.

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.