2025 Vicente Carrillo "Primera Especial" SP/MB

This 2025 Vicente Carrillo “Primera Especial” is a concert classical guitar with a spruce top and Malaysian blackwood back and sides, made in the Carrillo family workshop in Casasimarro, Spain.

The Carrillo “Primera Especial” Concert Model

This is the “Primera Especial” model from the Vicente Carrillo workshop – a true concert instrument in every regard. It features his best materials, including a stunning set of Malaysian blackwood for the back and sides.

Sound and Playability

This spruce-top guitar has a full richness and dark character you might expect from cedar, together with the great balance and clarity of spruce. It has an elegantly shaped neck for optimal playability and is a great value for the serious concert performer.

Casasimarro, “El Pueblo de las Guitarras”

Guitar making has been a constant tradition in the small Spanish town of Casasimarro, in the province of Cuenca, since the 18th century. The first known guitar maker in the town was Alfonso Anselmo Alarcón (born around 1744), the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Vicente Carrillo Casas (b. 1963). For many years now, the Carrillo workshop has earned Casasimarro the loving name “El Pueblo de las Guitarras” (the Town of the Guitars).

Seven Generations of Guitar Makers

The craft passed from Alfonso Anselmo to his son, Juan de Mata Alarcón, and through Juan’s daughter, Agustina Alarcón Escudero, into the Carrillo family when she married Felipe Manuel Carrillo. Their son, Blas Carrillo Alarcón (1834–1919, a.k.a. “Abuelo Moreno” – the “dark-haired grandfather”), carried on the family art – the label reads “desde 1836” – followed by Vicente Carrillo López (1881–1962) and Vicente Carrillo Cantos (1926–1971), with his wife, Gabriela Casas Fornier. Their son, Vicente Carrillo Casas, has been running the shop since 1980, the seventh generation of guitar makers in the family.

Madrid Power with Southern Lyricism

The distinctive elements of the Carrillo style have been influenced in recent years primarily by the Madrid luthiers Ángel Benito Aguado and José Romero (of the José Ramírez workshop). The guitars therefore have a big, deep and powerful quality much like the best guitars from the top Madrid shops, yet they still retain a lyrical charm found in southern Spanish instruments. In cooperation with GSI, Vicente has also made several further modifications to his guitars, and we believe these are among his finest instruments to date.