2025 Mario Grimaldi "1920 Santos" SP/AR

This pre-owned 2025 Mario Grimaldi "1920 Santos" (label No. 311) is a classical guitar with a German spruce top and African rosewood back and sides, made in Ovada, Italy, and modeled closely on a 1920 Santos Hernández – in pristine condition.

Mario Grimaldi's Santos Hernández Replica

The original 1920 Santos belongs to a close friend of Mario's, and he has known it well for years, with every detail of it measured and assessed. Where his "Friederich ex Presti" guitar was more of an homage, this one is close to a true bench copy: Mario reproduced the body outline, the top's bracing, the headstock and the rosette of the original.

German Spruce, African Rosewood and Spanish Cedar

Mario selected aged woods with care – German spruce for the top, a dark and very even set of African rosewood for the body, and Spanish cedar for the neck – and finished the whole guitar in hand-applied shellac (French polish). Alessi made the tuners to order, after the style of those on the 1920 Santos.

Sound: Dark Depth and a Snappy Response

What makes the guitar special is how much of the real Santos sound it has: a mysterious "dark" depth sitting behind a brighter, crisper attack, a blend with a character all its own. The light build and lightweight materials give it a quick, snappy, almost flamenco-like response. It already feels loose, resonant and broken-in, like an old-world Spanish guitar that has been played for decades – rare for a "replica", as most capture the look of an original but not its voice.

Condition

Although a second-hand guitar, this instrument is in pristine condition with virtually no signs of prior use.

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

Mario Grimaldi: From Model Maker to Guitar Maker

Born in Filippa di Mesoraca (Crotone), Italy, in 1957, Mario Grimaldi started working with wood at the age of sixteen as a model maker at the Eligio Re Fraschini company, where the models for the Ferrari Formula 1 cars were made. He first entered the world of the classical guitar as a player, studying classical guitar and double bass at the civic music school in Milan from 1982. In 1986 he took the lutherie course with luthier Carlo Raspagni, who gave him the bug to become a professional builder, and in 1989 he opened his own workshop dedicated exclusively to classical guitar making. Today his workshop is in Ovada (Alessandria), and GSI is proud to be his exclusive dealer in the USA.

Bouchet, Hauser and Alirio Díaz

Mario's early guitars were based largely on the work of Robert Bouchet. When the great Alirio Díaz commissioned a guitar from him in 1996, Díaz allowed Mario to study his 1951 Hermann Hauser I, which greatly affected Mario's developing style; he has since adopted many of its design features, including a Hauser-style model of his own.

The Gallinotti Legacy

In 2001 Mario befriended Carlo Gallinotti, the son and only assistant of Pietro Gallinotti (1885–1979), an iconic figure in Italian guitar making and likely the original inventor of the cedar top. Mario became fascinated with Gallinotti's legacy and style, and inherited many of the molds, tools and materials from the Gallinotti workshop, which he has studied and written about extensively. He credits Gallinotti as another influence in his eclectic style.

Restoration, Research and Books

In addition to building guitars, Mario restores vintage and historical guitars, and for many years he has looked after an important private collection of 20th-century guitars by the great Spanish and European makers. He has held conferences in various Italian conservatories on historical Italian violin making of the 20th century and has published the books "Pietro Gallinotti liutaio di Solero" (2006, written with Mario Dell'Ara) and "Il legno che canta" (Curci, 2013, written with Angelo Gilardino).