2012 German Vázquez Rubio w/Pegs No. 61212 SP/CY

This 2012 German Vázquez Rubio No. 61212 is a flamenco guitar with a spruce top and cypress back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – a concert flamenco blanca with Planetary pegs.

A Concert Blanca with Pegs

The materials are of very high quality and a pleasure to look at, including a perfectly quarter-sawn spruce top and gorgeous Spanish cypress back and sides. Its French polish shows an attention to detail and a perfection that very few makers achieve. Plenty of volume and character, an extremely open and responsive sound, very clear trebles and steady, full basses – it has it all.

Pegs, Playability and Label

A very low flamenco action makes it a dream to play. It is fitted with Planetary pegs, which are a joy to use – they look just like traditional pegs but work like geared tuners. The 2012 label is numbered 61212 and signed by German.

German Vázquez Rubio: Early Years in Paracho, Mexico

German Vázquez Rubio (also known as G.V. Rubio) has been making guitars since 1968 – over fifty years – and has developed his own signature sound that guitarists have come to love. He was born in 1952 in Paracho, Mexico, where there is an abundance of fine luthiers (with few exceptions, all of the finest guitars in Mexico come from Paracho). German’s first formal training began at eleven years old, when he left school to help support his seven siblings and went to work in the workshop of his uncle, Manuel Rubio. There, even at his young age, he made a conscious effort to make guitar building his life’s work.

“Desde 1968”

In 1968, at the age of sixteen, he made his first concert-level guitar (hence his label reads “Desde 1968”). German has since been able to learn from many different master builders such as Félix Manzanero, José Romanillos and Thomas Humphrey. He now resides in Los Angeles, California, where he builds a variety of both classical and flamenco models. He is also the maker of the real-life guitar from the Disney/Pixar film Coco – you can read more in our article on German Vázquez Rubio and the real Coco guitar.

First Prize in Mexico

In 2000, German won First Place at the Concurso Nacional de Constructores y Ejecutantes de Guitarras, Mexico’s national guitar-making competition.