2025 Colin Van Aelbrouck "Granada" SP/AR

This 2025 Colin Van Aelbrouck "Granada" is a classical guitar with a European spruce top and colorful African rosewood back and sides, made in Braine-le-Comte, Belgium, by the 2023 Granada prize winner, and built on the Marín/Bouchet bracing system.

Colin's "Granada" Model: The Marín/Bouchet System

The "Granada" model is based on the designs of Antonio Marín Montero and Robert Bouchet, most notably featuring a lightly braced soundboard with five fans and a "Bouchet" bar under the bridge. This guitar is very similar in build to the ACTUAL award-winning classical guitar that Colin showcased at the sixth Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Building Competition in August 2023. Soundboard and sides are kept very thin for ample vibration and transmission of sound, and, true to the old Spanish guitars Colin also admires, the whole guitar is lightly built for extra responsiveness. It is French polished throughout.

Rosette, Bindings and Purflings

Although structurally borrowing heavily from the Marín/Bouchet system, the aesthetics are all Colin's. The rosette is elegant yet understated and, when viewed up close, quite busy, with speckled mosaics not just in the central band but also in four of the purfling layers. The thick bindings on both top and back are flanked by wide maple purfling strips that frame the different materials into an elegant and unified whole. Subtle but beautiful!

Sound of the "Granada" Classical Guitar

These aesthetics are matched by a strong sound that is full, warm and evenly balanced, with the feel of a loose, old Spanish guitar: a deep bottom end and harmonically rich trebles. A fantastic value for such a striking and sonically beautiful instrument – it would serve any guitarist on stage or in the studio.

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.