2016 Francisco Barba SP/MH

A 2016 flamenco guitar by Francisco Barba, with a spruce top and mahogany back and sides, built in Seville – with a mother-of-pearl rosette, in like-new condition.

In the video above, Adam Del Monte plays his own "Cadiz" (Por Bulerías) on this guitar, with Gerardo Morales on cajón.

This Guitar Has It All

It responds to a light touch yet stands up to powerful playing. It has great volume without sacrificing tone, and it can give you beauty of sound or a growly flamenco bark. Picados and rasgueados are machine-gun fast, yet it has lyrical sustain. The mahogany back and sides enhance the midrange compared with a cypress guitar, without the heaviness that can sometimes come with rosewood – one of those rare flamencos that is just perfectly balanced.

Mother-of-Pearl Rosette and Finish

On top of all this, it is stunning to look at: an inlaid mother-of-pearl rosette, intricate black and white purfling with a matching tie-block, high-end Gotoh tuners, the finest woods and a masterful French polish. All these qualities combine to show why Francisco Barba is regarded by many as the greatest living builder of flamenco guitars. Although second-hand, it is in like-new, "mint" condition.

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.