2024 Colin Van Aelbrouck CD/IN

This 2024 Colin Van Aelbrouck classical guitar, built in Braine-le-Comte, Belgium, with a Western red cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides, follows plans of a 1915 Manuel Ramírez – the cedar-top version of Colin's 2023 Granada prize-winning model.

The Cedar Version of Colin's Prize-Winning Model

This is the same model (with a different wood for the top) as the ACTUAL award-winning classical guitar that Colin showcased at the sixth Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Building Competition in August 2023. We are extremely thrilled to have the cedar version here and are pleased to say it has all the great hallmarks of its spruce counterpart.

After a 1915 Manuel Ramírez

The model goes back to a 1915 Manuel Ramírez that Colin's teacher, Karel Dedain, inspected in person and then drew up plans for. Working from Karel's plans, Colin used Ramírez's traditional seven-fan system closed by two diagonal bars. Top and sides are very thin to allow ample vibration, and like the old Spanish guitar it is based on, the instrument is lightly built – another boost to its responsiveness. The finish is French polish.

Mosaic Rosette and Purflings

Although its structure comes from the 1915 Ramírez, the look is pure Colin. The rosette is elegant and understated from a distance but full of detail up close, with mosaics in the central band and in four of the purfling layers as well. The same theme carries on in the purflings around the top and back (including the back center seam). Subtle but beautiful!

Sound

The sound matches the looks: strong, full, warm and evenly balanced. Colin really captured the loose, open feel of an old Spanish guitar, with a deep bottom end and harmonically rich trebles. Great instrument all around.

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

Colin Van Aelbrouck: From a Charango to the Spanish Guitar

Colin Van Aelbrouck is a Belgian guitar maker who lives and works in Braine-le-Comte, a small city south of Brussels. From a very young age he was 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 bought a student-level Spanish guitar, which allowed him to start learning 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.

Training with Karel Dedain in Puurs

In 2011, his desire for a better 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), where he studied the art of lutherie with Karel Dedain for five years.

Influences: Ramírez, Santos, García, Bouchet and Friederich

Colin loves the sound of the Spanish guitars of the early 20th century – those of Manuel Ramírez, Santos Hernández and Enrique García. But he is also inspired by the great French luthiers, such as Robert Bouchet and Daniel Friederich, as well as by Italian, German and English makers. He has even built lattice guitars, replacing the usual carbon with wood. For Colin, each new experience is an enrichment, and each new guitar is an improvement. GSI is proud to be Colin's exclusive dealer in the USA.

First Prize in Granada

In August 2023 Colin won First Prize in the flamenco category and Second Prize in the classical category at the prestigious sixth Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Building Competition in Granada, Spain.