2023 German Vázquez Rubio "Concert 635" No. 92623 SP/MP

This 2023 German Vázquez Rubio “Concert 635” No. 92623 is a classical guitar with a spruce top and maple back and sides, made in Los Angeles, California – with ebony binding and a 50mm nut; Juri Yun plays in the videos above.

German’s 635mm Concert Model

The “Concert 635” is a beautiful concert guitar with several unique and striking design elements.

Materials and Details

Each time German builds one of these for us, he playfully changes small details, making each guitar unique. For this one, African ebony is used in the binding, heel cap and back center strip, framing the lighter quarter-sawn spruce, flamed maple back and sides and flamed maple neck. The headstock is built up in many layers – an ebony front veneer, three layers each of maple and palo escrito, and Brazilian lacewood for the back headplate – that “open” elegantly into the neck. Blue, yellow, red and green appear in the rosette and tie block, very fine half-herringbone purflings are used on the top and front head inlays, and it has Schaller GrandTune frictionless machines. Its French polish shows the attention to detail and perfection that very few makers achieve.

Sound, Playability and Label

Its trebles are clear and full, and its basses deep, with a lovely bouncy response. The shorter 635mm scale and a very low action make it a dream to play. It also has a 20th fret for a high C natural. Overall, a beautiful-sounding and intricately made concert guitar. German’s label – “Constructor, Desde 1968” – is signed, dated 2023 and numbered 92623, with “635” written beside it.

Two Videos

In the videos above, Juri Yun plays Sergei Rudnev’s “The Old Lime Tree” on a 2023 German Vázquez Rubio, and with Marc Teicholz Bach’s “Fugue in A minor, BWV 543” on G.V. Rubio and Bernabé 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.