2013 Ignacio Fleta SP/IN

This 2013 Ignacio Fleta is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, made in Barcelona by Gabriel Fleta Jr., the third generation of the Fleta family.

A 2013 Spruce-Top Fleta

Gabriel Fleta, Ignacio's younger son, died in January 2013, so this guitar from that year is almost certainly the work of Gabriel Jr. alone. It has a spruce soundboard – the wood of Fleta's celebrated guitars of the 1950s and 1960s – over Indian rosewood back and sides.

Sound

Here you get the full measure of a top Fleta: tremendous power, perfect balance, a deep, warm tone and generous clarity between voices in every register, all with a bold presence. The voice is dark, haunting and mysterious – a natural for Spanish and South American music – and the sustain carries superbly across the fingerboard. The neck is very comfortable and the guitar responds easily to the right hand, ready for concert or recording work.

Condition

The guitar is completely original, with no cracks or repairs and only a few very minor signs of playing wear in the finish. With a sound that will please collectors and performers alike, it is a very desirable modern Fleta.

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.