2016 German Vázquez Rubio "Concert 635" No. 42616 SP/MP

This 2016 German Vázquez Rubio “Concert 635” No. 42616 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and maple back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – his 635mm concert model, in spruce and flamed maple.

The “Concert 635”

This is a beautiful concert instrument featuring several unique and striking design elements. Its 635mm string length makes it easy to play without giving up the sound of a concert guitar.

The Details

The materials are of very high quality and a pleasure to look at, including a perfectly quarter-sawn spruce top and flamed maple back and sides. Padauk is used in the binding, back center strip and tie block, framing the guitar with its deep-reddish hue, and the meticulously layered headstock – four pieces of maple and three of mahogany, with a rosewood front veneer – “opens” elegantly into the neck when viewed from behind. An inner layer of half-herringbone purfling runs around the whole top and around the rosette, and there is a subtle use of blue in the rosette – barely noticeable to the naked eye, but part of the unique look of the guitar. The shellac finish is applied with a level of attention to detail and perfection found in very few makers.

Sound and Label

The trebles are very clear and full, and the basses are deep with a nice bouncy response. Playability is a dream, with a very low action and the shorter 635mm string length. It also has a 20th fret for a high C natural. Overall, a beautiful-sounding and intricately made concert guitar. The 2016 label is numbered 42616 and signed by German, with “635” written beside it.

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.