Flamenco guitar Santos Hernández 1936

This flamenco guitar was built by the legendary master luthier Santos Hernández in 1936. He was Manuel Ramírez´s best disciple, working for him for 23 years. In 1918 he opened his own workshop in 23 Aduana Street. Santos Hernández built around 300 guitars since 1916 until his very death. These guitars were used by many of the greatest guitarists of that time: Ramón Montoya, Andrés Segovia, Sabicas, Niño Ricardo, Regino Sainz de la Maza, etc.

This flamenco guitar has belonged to Paco Espinosa’ s personal collection.

The different kinds of wood used in its construction have an excellent quality. German spruce can be seen in the top, with a very marked, straight and even grain and Spanish Royal Cypress is the kind of wood employed for the back and sides.

The sound is extraordinary, with an unbeatable character. The basses are powerful, with extraordinary depth. The trebles are crystal clear and bright, with great scope and sustain, and showing a perfect balance between both of them and with the added personality acquired as time goes by. All of which make a guitar with an extraordinarily high sound qualit, which makes us understand the respect and admiration that this firm gets from the guitar world.

The action of this flamenco guitar is medium, and the height of the strings in the fingerboard and saddle is perfect and balanced, assuring great comfort on both hands and easing up the guitarist performance.

The conservation condition is very good, it keeps the originality on all its parts including the headstock, nut, and shellac… It has a fissure on the sound top, and another one on the body side, both perfectly repaired and documented on the attached images, the shellac has been slightly repolished,  works done by the master restorer Yuris Zeltins. We must highlight the construction firmness this instrument shows, which make it appropriate to play it and use it in any situation, getting away from the rumors that say vintage guitars are fragile and delicate.