2016 Teodoro Pérez "Especial Maple" No. 1146 CD/CSAR

This 2016 Teodoro Pérez “Especial Maple” No. 1146 is a cedar and CSA rosewood concert classical guitar from Madrid, Spain – the maple-trimmed version of Teodoro’s top model, with a cedar top.

About the "Especial"

Nothing in the Pérez catalog sits above the “Especial”: the woods are the finest available to the workshop, and the purfling and inlay are more elaborate than on the other models.

Bird’s-Eye Maple Details

Maple recurs throughout this guitar: a bird’s-eye maple neck, head veneer, foot seam and center back strip set off the CSA rosewood and the cedar top.

The Especial Sound

The sound is very distinctly Spanish, full and romantic with a quick attack, and clarity is excellent for a cedar top, with plenty of volume for any setting including ensemble work.

The Label

Dated 2016 and numbered 1146, the label is printed “Maestro Especial” – a gorgeous top-level concert guitar by any standard.

Trained in the José Ramírez III Workshop

Teodoro Pérez was born in 1952 in the province of Soria, Spain, but moved to Madrid while still very young. In 1966 he began his apprenticeship in the famed José Ramírez III workshop, where he built guitars, lutes, bandurrias and mandolins. During these years, he had the great honor to meet some of the great maestros of the twentieth century, including Andrés Segovia, Narciso Yepes and many others. In 1970, after passing the appropriate tests, and with the approval of José Ramírez, he qualified as First Official, and stamped the guitars he made with his initials GPM.

Tezanos-Pérez and a Family Workshop in Leganés, Madrid

In 1991, Teodoro teamed up with fellow Ramírez veteran Mariano Tezanos, and built guitars under the name "Tezanos-Pérez" until 2005. Today he builds with his family in their workshop at Calle del Perú 4 in Leganés, just south of Madrid: his son, Sergio Pérez, who has been assisting him in his work since 1998, his daughter, Beatriz, and his son-in-law, Marco Tejeda. Sergio and Marco also build guitars under their own names. GSI is proud to represent these guitars exclusively in the United States.

The Pérez Model Line

The workshop builds a complete range of models. The Estudio C-650 (from 2016), an entry-level concert guitar with its own numbering, and the Madrid (from 2012) are finished in lacquer. The Concierto is the first model finished entirely in French polish, with single sides; the Maestro sits in the middle of the line; and the Especial is the top model, with the finest materials and additional purfling and inlay – some Maestro and Especial guitars have double sides. The Antigua (from 2015) has a smaller Torres-type body, single sides and a 51 mm nut, and La Emperatriz is built after the 1884 Antonio de Torres "La Emperatriz", SE 72. For flamenco there are the Flamenco Blanca and Flamenco Negra, and the anniversary models – ten 50th Anniversary guitars in 2016 and, from 2020, the Especial Aniversario – celebrate Teodoro's half-century as a guitar maker.