José López Bellido 1988
MADE IN GRANADA

Construction: Classical
Top Wood: Cedar
Back and Sides Wood: Brazilian Rosewood
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DESCRIPTION

Biography

Granada Guitar Maker Jose Lopez Bellido guitar for sale 1988 Classical Guitar

DESCRIPTION

Biography

Granada, with a tradition of more than 200 years in guitar making, and a place where important developments of the instrument took place, today has more than 50 guitar makers working at a high level. Many of today’s younger guitar makers have inherited the legacy of the previous generation in the city, who built instruments of outstanding quality, sought after by leading guitarists and collectors around the world.

One of the great names in this history is José López Bellido, whose guitars can be said to embody the essence of the Granada tradition. They are light instruments, built strictly following the traditional Spanish method, with a beautiful sound that has often been compared by experts to that of great historical makers such as Manuel Reyes or Miguel Rodriguez.

The sound in this guitar we present here in MADERA is velvety, clear and clean, excellent sound projection with a remarkably well-balanced tonal response. For anyone seeking a very traditional Spanish sound from the second half of the 20th century, José López Bellido represents a highly attractive option. He is one of our favorites Granada Guitar Makers. This guitar also boasts a very attractive aesthetic, with a striking and original Lopez Bellido rosette that creates a beautiful contrast with the color of the cedar, and a beautifully designed headstock, highly elaborate and carved with a mastery that reflects the great prestige this guitar maker enjoys in the city as an exceptional craftsman.

This particular guitar features exceptional woods. With a Brazilian quality so difficult to see nowadays. We especially appreciate the combination of a cedar top with Brazilian rosewood back and sides. The grain of the Brazilian rosewood is straight, as preferred by the finest guitar makers.

There are no cracks, no restorations, everything original, and for a guitar from 1988, with nearly 40 years of history, it is normal to find some minor scratches, which are not significant, as can be seen in the photos.

An excellent opportunity to own a guitar that represents the essence of the Spanish tradition and stands as an example of the rich history of our city, Granada.

Scale Length: 660 mm
Nut Width: 54m
12th Fret Width: 65mm
Guitar Length: 1000mm
Body Length: 485mm
1st Fret at Nut. 6th string to 1st string: 45,5mm
12th Fret. 6th string to 1st string: 53,5mm
Bridge. 6th string to 1st string: 60mm
Side Width Upper body: 100mm
Side Width Lower body: 120mm
12th fret to 6th String Height: 4mm
12th Fret to 1st String Height: 3mm
Weight: 1472g

Original Tuning Machine Fustero

Bracing pattern

fan bracing varetaje Jose Lopez Bellido guitar for sale 1988 Classical Guitar

José López Bellido (1943-2023) is one of the most outstanding guitar-makers in Granada in terms of his own career, his influence on other younger guitar-makers, his interest and knowledge of the traditional Granada guitar, and his open, friendly, cheerful personality. José López Bellido’s beginnings and his apprenticeship are closely linked to those of his brother Manuel. He has followed in his footsteps, sharing experiences in workshops and with the maestros with whom Manuel worked. He remembers working at Claudio Carmona’s furniture workshop at the age of ten and the time he spent aged fourteen, at the Huerta del Loro workshop making castanets with Don Eduardo Ferrer. This is where he met his future wife Ángeles, Eduardo’s daughter, who was eleven at the time. He remembers how on occasions at the Huerta del Loro, at the end of the day they would brush away the sawdust, push back the workbenches, get the record-player out and have a party.

Later he went on to work at the workshop in the calle Laurel de San Matías run by his brother and Antonio Marín Montero. José López Bellido received good advice from his father-in-law, Eduardo Ferrer, but he was never his maestro. His only maestro was his brother. José López Bellido’s story is a bit different in that he wasn’t always a woodworker. He started playing the guitar when he was seventeen years old with his boyhood friend, Miguelillo Crespo, and together they formed a rock band. The family of another friend, Juanito Escobar, opened a perfume shop and Juanito, always the sly one, managed to find out the addresses of the girls who came to the shop to buy perfume. After first asking permission from the Civil Guard, they would then visit the girls’ houses to serenade them. They played songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. They formed a band in which Pepe played an electric bass that he had made himself. The bass was shaped like a violin, like Paul McCartney’s, and he built it with a template that he made after going to the cinema several times to see a Beatles film so that he could study McCartney’s bass with great care.

Someone suggested to them that they should move to Madrid, which they did, but they played to empty or angry houses. Once or twice they even feared they were going to be attacked. After their hard times in the Spanish capital, they finally triumphed in a bar in the city. The singer, José María, surprised the public by diving on the floor and writhing around, singing and shouting. This seemed to be the recipe for success they had been searching for and they were offered a three-month contract to perform. Someone heard about them, and they were soon on TV on a talent show called Salto a la fama —Leap to Fame— an excellent platform from which to make a name for themselves. The band went from strength to strength and lasted another five years during which José continued making bandurrias when he was in Granada.

The time came for their military service. José was called up to the navy. He took his guitar with him to the barracks and one day, while he was playing Lágrima, by the guitarist and composer Tárrega, the corvette captain asked him: —What are you playing, sailor? —A guitar, Sir. —I know it’s a guitar! —he replied grumpily—. I was asking about the music you’re playing! —Sir, it’s a classical guitar piece called Lágrima —José replied. —Could you teach me that? —The captain enquired. —Sir, have you ever picked up a guitar before? —No, I’ve never picked up a guitar in my life! —Well, Sir, you need time to learn to play —José warned him. —Well we won’t be short of time, because you’re coming with me on the S.S. Juan Sebastián el Cano. Pack your bag!

José’s world collapsed around him. Once on board the ship he was made to work as never before or since. And to cap it all, the captain had no ear for guitar-playing, “His ear was only good for chucking in the puchero de St Antón¹“.

¹ The “puchero de San Antón” is a typical Granada stew containing pigs’ ears among other main ingredients.

He never learnt Lágrima or anything else for that matter, and my guitar must have cracked twenty times because of the damp!”. When he returned home after his military service he did not feel like going back to playing in bands and decided to go back to what he really liked namely guitar-making. He told his brother (Manuel Bellido), his maestro, that he was thinking about setting up by himself in his own workshop as he thought he had gained sufficient experience over the years to do so. And that is what he did. José López Bellido began his career as a solo guitar-maker in 1967 in a shop on the cuesta Gomérez, which his father-in-law Eduardo Ferrer let him use, a little further down the street from his current workshop. He says that when you set up by yourself you have no choice but to figure out on your own how to solve the problems you encounter and this is when the guitar-maker really learns his craft.

During his first three years —from 1967 to 1970— José made guitars for other established workshops that already had a long list of clients. He also made guitars for well-known workshops outside Granada, in cities such as Madrid, Seville and Málaga. All they did was stick their own label on the guitar and then bump up the price three or fourfold. Pepe thought this was wrong, but he was just beginning, and had to make ends meet somehow to get the money to buy wood and continue plying his trade. However from 1970 onwards he gradually became known to music shops and private customers who started ordering guitars from him directly.

José López Bellido has always had a very traditional approach to making his guitars to such an extent that he does not use a neck reinforcement because this dampens the sound. He even argues that guitar-makers should continue to use wooden pegs —instead of geared tuners— in order to avoid this problem. He remains aware however that the guitar has advanced a great deal and that the guitar-maker must also move with the times.

He says that he has learnt a great deal at music schools in conversations with guitarists, teachers and other professionals in the world of the Spanish guitar and has taken careful note of their opinions and of the problems that they have raised with him. On many occasions he says he thought he would go mad trying to solve a problem that had cropped up in a guitar he was making for a particular client. He remembers times when he would get up in the middle of the night after hours of sleepless pondering to go out to his workshop and try to find out the cause of the problem.

For José López Bellido, the name and the signature on the label of the guitar is a guarantee offered by the maker. For him guitar-making is more than just making a guitar and selling it. If a problem should arise with a guitar or the guitar should break, the guitar-maker must always be there to solve the problem, something that is very much the custom amongst Granada’s guitar-makers.

José López Bellido’s guitars can often be heard in the hands of great classical and flamenco guitarists, including among others Juan Carmona “Habichuela”, also from Granada, one of the most admired flamenco guitarists in history. Pepe has also had a number of outstanding apprentices including Antonio Raya Pardo, Bernd Martin and his own nephew, Eduardo Durán