2022 German Vázquez Rubio "Concert 635" No. 40822 SP/MP

This 2022 German Vázquez Rubio “Concert 635” No. 40822 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and maple back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California; Joseph Douglass plays Santiago de Murcia on it in the video above.

About the “Concert 635”

German gives the model several unique, striking design elements, and the result is a beautiful concert instrument.

Design and Materials

Its perfectly quarter-sawn spruce top, flamed maple back and sides and flamed maple neck are framed by snakewood in the binding, heel cap and back center strip. The headstock is layered in four pieces of maple and three of palo escrito with an ebony front veneer, in German’s “Elite” shape with “vanishing” inlay on the front, and he used beautiful lacewood for the veneer on the back of the head. Touches of blue, green, yellow and red run through the rosette, tie block, top purfling, back center seam and head veneer inlay – barely noticeable, but part of the guitar’s unique look. It has gold EVO frets and Schaller GrandTune frictionless machines with snakewood buttons to match the binding. The shellac finish has been applied with the kind of perfection very few makers attain.

Sound, Playability and Label

Clear, full trebles sit over deep basses with a nice, bouncy response. It is a dream to play – the action is very low and the string length a short 635mm. A 20th fret gives the high C natural. Beautiful in sound and intricately made, it is a lovely concert guitar. On the label: German’s signature, the year 2022 and the number 40822, with “635” written beside it.

In the Video Above

Joseph Douglass plays Santiago de Murcia’s “Marionas” on this guitar.

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.