2024 Colin van Aelbrouck CD/IN

Built by Belgian luthier Colin van Aelbrouck, this guitar is made with Western red cedar for the soundboard, and a beautifully cut set of Indian rosewood for the back and sides. This is the same model (but with different wood for the top) as the actual award-winning classical guitar that Colin showcased at the sixth Antonio Marin Montero Guitar Making Competition held in Granada, Spain in August, 2023. We are extremely thrilled to have the cedar version of this guitar here and are pleased to say it has all the great hallmarks of its spruce counterpart. It was built based a 1915 Manuel Ramirez that his teacher, Karel Dedain was able to write up plans for after inspecting it in person. Following these specs from Karel's plans, Colin has built this guitar following Manuel Ramirez' traditional 7 fan-bracing system with 2 closing diagonal bars. The top and sides are very thin to allow ample vibration. Like the old Spanish guitar this is based on, Colin's guitar is lightly built which also gives it an assist in added responsiveness. The entire instrument is French polished and tuning machines are high-grade Barnett tuners.

Although structurally based on the 1915 Manuel Ramirez, the aesthetics are all Colin's. The rosette is elegant yet understated and when viewed up close, quite busy with mosaics not just in the central band but also in four of the purfling layers. This theme is also carried out in the purflings surrounding the top and back of the guitar (including the back center seam). Subtle but beautiful! These aesthetics are matched by the strong sound which is full, warm and evenly balanced. Colin was really able to capture the feel and sound of a loose, old Spanish guitar with a deep bottom-end and harmonically-rich trebles. This is a fantastic value for such a visually stunning and sonically beautiful instrument and would satisfy the recording or concertizing needs of any guitarist. Great instrument all around.

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

Colin is a Belgian guitarmaker who lives and works in Braine-le-Comte, a small city south of Brussels. From a very young age, he was very attracted to music of all types, but it was at the age of 18, during a humanitarian trip to Chile, that he fell in love with stringed instruments. He returned home with a charango and purchased a student-level Spanish guitar which allowed him to start learning how to play some of the Andean and Latin American repertoire he had picked up during his travels. Shortly after, he heard Pepe Habichuela's album "Hierbabuena" and became passionate about flamenco guitar and Spanish guitar music in general. In 2011, his desire to have a better quality instrument led him to build his first guitar following the instructions in Roy Courtnall's book "Making a Spanish Guitar". In 2013, he entered the CMB school in Puurs (Centrum voor Muziekinstrumentenbouw) and studied the art of lutherie from Karel Dedain for 5 years.

Colin is a lover of the sound of Spanish guitars from the beginning of the 20th century, those of Manuel Ramirez, Santos Hernandez, Enrique Garcia,... But he is also inspired by the guitars of great French luthiers, such as those of Bouchet and Friederich, as well as Italian, German and English luthiers. He has already built lattice guitars by replacing carbon with wood. For Colin, each new experience is an enrichment, each new guitar is an improvement. 

After several years of working at his craft, Colin van Aelbrouck was awarded second-prize for his classical guitar (where he also received first prize for his flamenco) at the prestigious sixth Antonio Marin Montero Guitar Making Competition held in Granada, Spain in August, 2023.