1998 Manuel Velázquez SP/AB

This 1998 Manuel Velázquez is a spruce and African blackwood classical guitar, with the soundboard in the Velázquez oil varnish.

Blackwood and Oil Varnish

African blackwood is very dense, more reflective and brilliant than the usual rosewoods, and it enhances the Velázquez sound – clean and pure, with razor-sharp separation between voices. The back and sides are lacquered for durability, while the top is in the Velázquez oil varnish, which over time develops a slight yellowing that gives the spruce a beautiful, honeyed appearance.

Condition

The label is the scroll label he used for the rest of his career – “Manuel Velázquez, Constructor de Guitarras, New York” – dated by hand and signed “Manuel Velázquez” across the center. The guitar is all original, with no cracks or repairs and barely any playing wear. John Marcel Williams plays it in the video above.

Manuel Velázquez: An American Master in the Spanish Tradition

Manuel Velázquez (1917–2014) was born in Puerto Rico and made his name in New York, where his workshop at 420 Third Avenue became a meeting place for leading guitarists. He was perhaps the greatest American luthier to build in the European tradition, and his guitars yield nothing in craftsmanship or sound to those of his Spanish and German contemporaries. Over a career of nearly eight decades – in New York, Puerto Rico, Virginia and Florida – his instruments were played by Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, Pepe Romero, Rey de la Torre and Sabicas, and by musicians far beyond the classical world, from Earl Klugh to Paul Simon and Keith Richards.

The Velázquez Sound

Velázquez guitars are most often compared to those of Hermann Hauser I and Hermann Hauser II – not only in appearance but in the style of sound: great clarity and separation between voices, perfect balance, sparkling trebles over steady basses and a natural, beautiful “woody” quality of tone. Most of his guitars follow this compact, Hauser-like model; in the 1970s and early 1980s he also built a larger, more rounded body with a deeper box and an even bigger sound. His son Alfredo Velázquez, who learned the craft in his father’s workshop, continues the tradition.

Books on Manuel Velázquez

A 1978 Velázquez – a guitar that later passed through our hands – is reproduced in Alberto Martínez’s book “34 Classical Guitars in Life Size”, and a 1955 Velázquez from the Russell Cleveland collection appears in “The Classical Guitar – A Complete History”:

34 Classical Guitars in Life Size

The Classical Guitar – A Complete History