2016 Ethan Deutsch SP/CSAR

This 2016 classical guitar by Ethan Deutsch combines a spruce soundboard with CSA rosewood back and sides, built in the traditional Spanish style in Seattle.

A 2016 Ethan Deutsch Classical Guitar

It is built the old way: notably lightweight, like the classical and flamenco guitars made in Andalucía in the mid-twentieth century, and every note comes out with a strong, quick snap. The body of each note is loose and old-world – warm basses, lyrical trebles.

Rosette and Playability

A beautiful instrument (note the "weaved" pattern in the rosette) with a great, traditional Spanish sound. It plays extremely easily for the left hand, with a sleek and easy neck contour, and responds to the lightest touch, so the right hand has a very easy time too. For the serious classical player looking for a fantastic traditional concert guitar, we can recommend this instrument highly.

Ethan Deutsch: Flamenco and Classical Guitar Maker in Seattle

Ethan Deutsch builds flamenco and classical guitars in Seattle, Washington, and has done so full-time since 1997. Born in 1955, he took up the flamenco guitar as a teenager in the Boston area – and the path from there to the workbench is one of the more fascinating stories among the makers we know.

Morón de la Frontera and Diego del Gastor

In 1970, at fifteen, he went to Spain for a year and studied with the legendary Gypsy guitarist Diego del Gastor in Morón de la Frontera, near Sevilla, absorbing the music mostly by listening and watching. He came home in 1971 with a Manuel Contreras flamenco guitar, discovered Irving Sloane's book Classic Guitar Construction and began building – learning mostly on his own.

Chemist, Flamenco Guitarist, Furniture Maker

With little guidance available for an aspiring luthier, Ethan went to college instead: a chemistry degree at Antioch College, then a Ph.D. in chemistry at Princeton and five years as a research chemist. All the while he performed flamenco professionally under the stage name "Mario Amaya" and taught himself fine woodworking. In 1989 he opened a one-man furniture and cabinet shop in Chicago, moved it to Seattle in 1991, and in 1997 came full circle and returned to guitar making.

Traditional Guitars in the Andalusian Manner

Ethan builds in the old Spanish tradition, mostly flamenco blancas of cypress and spruce, along with negras and a few classical guitars. Over the years he has fitted many of his flamencos with mechanical "machined" pegs from different makers, which keep the look of wooden friction pegs. Flamenco players such as Gerardo Núñez, Jason McGuire and Kai Narezo have all played his guitars.