2017 German Vázquez Rubio "Requinto Elite" No. 21817 SP/MP

This 2017 German Vázquez Rubio “Requinto Elite” No. 21817 is a requinto with a spruce top and maple back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – a 548mm requinto made with his most precious materials.

The Requinto

This requinto has a 548mm string length. The requinto is traditionally tuned to A – just like a standard guitar with a capo at the 5th fret. Mexican groups such as Trio Los Panchos, Los Dandys and Los Tres Ases are usually credited with popularizing it in the 20th century. It takes normal-tension classical strings and is played like a standard guitar, and many session players use one when they want a bright, clean melody on a recording; with its much smaller scale it also offers an easier reach and a different sound from the typical classical guitar.

An “Elite” Requinto

It is German’s “Elite” requinto, made with his most precious materials: an aged German spruce soundboard and master-grade European flamed maple for the back and sides, with a Spanish cedar neck – with a hidden fixed reinforcement – and an African ebony fingerboard. A hand-thinned nitrocellulose lacquer gives it amazing sustain and volume, and the traditional decoration includes abalone inlay in the rosette, fingerboard and headstock, with specially made bindings and purfling. No. 21817 is written on the label, which is dated 2017 and signed by German.

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.