2003 Francisco Barba SP/CY

A 2003 flamenco blanca by Francisco Barba, with a spruce top and cypress back and sides, built in Seville – with subtle "midnight blue" inlay work and no prior damage or repairs.

In the videos above you can hear this guitar in a short demo and in Alexios Anest's own composition "Saca La Basura" (Take Out the Trash).

Midnight Blue Inlays

A great example of Barba's top work, it is visually stunning, with many lovely details – notably the subtle use of "midnight blue" in some of the inlays: in the purflings around the top, in the tie-block and inside and outside the rosette.

Sound and Playability

Featherlight in construction, it responds with lightning speed. The tone is fat and balanced, with enormous punch, volume and flamenco edge, and the easy, sleek neck and low action give just the right amount of "sizzle" for authentic southern Spanish flamenco.

Condition

Condition is amazing: no prior damage or repairs, just some very minor wear in a few areas of the finish from prior use. A top concert instrument for any professional flamenco setting, whether on stage or in the studio.

Read more: Orfeo Magazine No. 25 – Flamenco: Origins of the Flamenco Guitar (with a feature on Francisco Barba and his sons)

Francisco Barba: Master Flamenco Guitar Maker of Seville

Francisco Barba (b. 1939) is the best-known guitar maker in Seville and one of the most respected builders of flamenco guitars in all of Spain, of the same generation as Manuel Reyes and Gerundino Fernández. A Sevillian through and through, he started woodworking at fourteen in his father's carpentry shop and built his first guitar at eighteen, teaching himself as he went. With no teacher and none of the special tools of the trade, he worked out his own methods from scratch – which is why a Barba is built like no other guitar – and he has spent his whole working life in his workshop on Calle Arroyo, in the heart of Seville.

Francisco Barba and His Sons: Guitars Made by Six Hands

For more than thirty years Francisco has built his guitars together with his sons, Francisco (Paco) and Juan Antonio Barba. The three share every stage of the work rather than specializing, choose their woods with the same ear and voice each guitar together at the end – so although the label reads "Francisco Barba", every guitar from the shop is the work of all three. Barba guitars have been the instruments of many of Andalucía's finest flamenco players, among them Rafael Riqueni, Manolo Franco, Niño de Pura, Pedro Peña, Manuel Molina and Quique Paredes, and the family was featured in Orfeo Magazine No. 25 in 2025.