2018 German Vázquez Rubio "Custom Elite" No. 10318 SP/IN

This 2018 German Vázquez Rubio “Custom Elite” No. 10318 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – his top model, heard in four videos above, including Marina Tomei’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”.

The “Custom Elite”

German’s “Custom Elite” is his top-of-the-line model, made only with his finest and most precious materials, with his unique and sophisticated bracing pattern and his most refined carving, inlay and finish work.

Spruce and Indian Rosewood

This one has a premium European spruce top from his reserve stock and high-grade Indian rosewood for the back and sides, a V-joint mahogany neck and an African ebony fingerboard with hidden cocobolo reinforcement. The raised fingerboard makes the upper registers more comfortable, and the 20th fret gives a high C natural.

Sound, Condition and Label

It has a superb sound, with a rich, velvety texture to each note, and it is extremely responsive and loose, with plenty of volume for any concert setting. Although used, it is in excellent condition, with virtually no signs of prior use. German’s label – “Constructor, Desde 1968” – is signed, dated 2018 and numbered 10318, with “Elite” written beside it.

Four Videos

Marina Tomei plays Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” on this guitar in the first video above. In the others, Fareed Haque plays his “Short Suite” and Saro Babikian Scarlatti’s Sonata K. 239 on a G.V. Rubio “Custom Elite”, and the Belgrade Guitar Duo plays Bogdanović’s “Sonata Fantasia” on G.V. Rubio guitars.

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.