1960 Arcángel Fernández No. 113 SP/CY

This 1960 Arcángel Fernández No. 113 is a spruce and cypress flamenco blanca from Madrid in excellent original condition, with only two small repairs.

The Classic Madrid Blanca of 1960

Numbered 113 on its early printed label, this guitar comes from the years when Arcángel was building in his own workshop at Jesús y María 26. It is one of the more lightweight examples we have seen of his work, and the result is a very strong, booming sound with lightning-fast response – basses with impressive richness and body, and trebles with a beautiful, singing, "lyrical" quality. Playability is superb with low action and an elegantly shaped, easy neck.

Condition and Restoration

It is in fantastic condition with only two repairs (on either side of the fingerboard), which is remarkable for an instrument of this vintage. The tap plates were replaced by Germán Vázquez Rubio ("aged" to look of the period), as the originals had delaminated over the years. The finish on part of the top was touched up at the same time, but otherwise the guitar is in excellent, original condition.

Arcángel Fernández: Flamenco Guitar Maker of Madrid

Arcángel Fernández (born 1932) is one of the best and most famed Spanish luthiers of both flamenco and classical guitars of the latter half of the twentieth century. He came to the guitar from cabinet making, and in 1954 he became the assistant of Marcelo Barbero – then the finest maker in Madrid – preparing woods and finishing instruments. He was the only person ever to apprentice with Barbero. When his master died in March 1956, Arcángel completed the guitars left unfinished in the shop and for about a year went on building for Barbero's widow.

His Own Workshop in Lavapiés

He then opened his own workshop at Jesús y María 26, a couple of blocks from Barbero's old shop in Madrid's Lavapiés quarter. There he took in Barbero's young son, Marcelo Barbero Hijo, taught him everything he had learned from the father, and worked side by side with him for some forty years. Like his master, Arcángel played an integral role in defining the archetypal flamenco guitar – light, fast and powerful, with a loose, dry and woody "old world" sound – which still serves as the model for flamenco luthiers chasing that classic mid-century sound. He built only a small number of guitars each year, in his later decades almost exclusively for collectors in Japan, until demand grew so great that he stopped taking orders. In 2011 he retired to the Canary Islands.

Books on Arcángel Fernández

A 1962 Arcángel Fernández is one of the guitars reproduced in Alberto Martínez's book "34 Classical Guitars in Life Size", with photographs and full-size drawings of each instrument:

34 Classical Guitars in Life Size