c. 1957 Arcángel Fernández SP/CY (ex Mario Maccaferri)

This c. 1957 Arcángel Fernández is a spruce and cypress flamenco guitar from Madrid, built with original Santos Hernández parts and a 1921 Santos label – and owned by Mario Maccaferri, for whom it was his favorite guitar.

A Guitar with Three Great Names

This is an absolutely interesting guitar for many reasons – its origins, history/provenance and of course excellence as a great musical instrument. Although it has been built with genuine Santos Hernández elements (including the rosette, a label dated 1921 – "Plaza de Nicolás Salmerón, 8, Madrid" – and possibly other parts) it is believed to have actually been constructed between 1955 and 1957, by Arcángel during or shortly after his apprenticeship at the Marcelo Barbero shop.

From the Santos Shop, Through Barbero, to Arcángel

Arcángel was the only apprentice Barbero ever had, and Barbero had been called on by Santos' widow, Matilde, to complete the guitars Santos left unfinished at his death. In the case of this guitar, it is most likely that some of the materials from the Santos shop were taken by Barbero and eventually acquired by Arcángel, which made their way into this guitar.

Why We Attribute It to Arcángel Fernández

Internal evidence such as tooling marks, reinforcing strips, bracing and lining shapes, as well as details pertaining to the heel, are all very similar to and indicative of Arcángel's work from his early period, and not of any era of Santos. Perhaps the smoking gun is a signature under the top in pencil: "A. Fernandez" (see photo). The finish (which is original) is also closer to the formula used by Arcángel than by Santos, and several other aesthetic details – including the size of the purflings and the coloring – point to Arcángel and not Santos.

Mario Maccaferri's Favorite Guitar

This guitar was owned by the late Mario Maccaferri and purchased from his estate by the previous owner – according to Maccaferri's widow, it was his favorite guitar. Select restoration was done by Yuris Zeltins to "undo" some repair work done by Maccaferri: a new bridge and headstock, new frets, the re-repairing of several cracks, the addition of clear golpeadores and some French polish touch-up. Playability is therefore excellent, and the guitar is in excellent, albeit restored, condition.

Sound

Sound is spectacular. It has all the great qualities of a mid-century flamenco, which should not be surprising given its constituent elements from Santos, through Barbero to Arcángel – the three builders who did so much to define the archetypal flamenco guitar, and this instrument is as good an example of that synthesis as can be found anywhere. It is light in weight, which produces a very strong, booming sound with lightning-fast response. The basses have impressive richness and body, and the trebles have a beautiful, singing, "lyrical" quality. One of the most compelling instruments we've seen to date – an absolutely unique guitar with a big story and a big sound (listen to Grisha Goryachev play Sabicas' "Zapateado en Re" on it in the video).

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