2015 German Vázquez Rubio "Concert Negra" No. 61815 CD/HR

This 2015 German Vázquez Rubio “Concert Negra” No. 61815 is a flamenco guitar with a cedar top and Honduran rosewood back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – cedar and Honduran rosewood, built to a 654mm string length.

A Cedar-Top Concert Negra

Cedar is an unusual choice for a flamenco, and with Honduran rosewood it gives this negra a warm, full voice. A perfectly quarter-sawn cedar top and gorgeous Honduran rosewood back and sides – very high-quality materials, and a pleasure to look at. The shellac finish has been applied with the kind of perfection very few makers attain.

Sound, Playability and Label

Open and extremely responsive, the guitar has plenty of volume and character; its trebles are very clear, its basses steady and full. Playability is a dream, with a very low flamenco action. The string length is 654mm, with a 53mm nut. The label is signed by German, dated 2015 and numbered 61815.

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.