Miguel Rodriguez 1983

It is always something very special when you first pick up a guitar that represents so well the work of one of the most important guitar makers in the history of the traditional Spanish guitar. It is a unique feeling because from the very first moment, from the moment you play the first notes, the first chords, or you start interpreting some music from your repertoire, you see something magical. The first thing that comes to me is beauty. You play one, two notes and you think what a wonder, what a purer and more beautiful sound. Then little by little the qualities and the endless nuances and sensations that a guitar like this offers you start to unfold. You see how comfortable it is to play, the colours it has, the very special character of each string, the first string, the sweetness of the second string, the basses, their depth, their controlled synthesis with the trebles, the flexibility that the right hand has when playing the guitar, how it seems to bounce when touching the strings, giving you a pleasant comfort that makes you play and play and keep on playing. Then you play some piece and you see how these guitars change your interpretation, new interpretative paths arise for you, it favours creation. What’s more, the guitar becomes a co-participant in your interpretation, a kind of union occurs between it and you. And finally you lose yourself in it and in the music. What a very special feeling when you lose track of time, of place, of yourself, and you immerse yourself in the sounds and the beauty. Not every guitar gives you all this. Only those unique guitars like this marvel, this Miguel Rodriguez 1983 Cedar Cypress, give you that. How interesting and special this wood combination also is. Cypress is without doubt one of my three favourite woods. And it is perhaps the one that best represents the most Spanish sound. Full of sound of great purity and beauty. On the other hand there are professional guitarists with a very long career who comment that their favourite wood combination is Cedar and Cypress, as the classical guitarist Pepe Romero says. This guitar Miguel Rodriguez 1983, both for playing flamenco and classical repertoire, is a marvel. A constant joy. Also to add is that in my opinion the condition of the guitar is unbeatable for a guitar made in 1983, already almost fifty years old. It looks almost new. A collection guitar of the highest quality in the history of the Spanish guitar and construction.

Miguel Rodríguez Serrano was one of the great traditional Spanish guitar makers of the twentieth century, heir to the workshop founded by his father, Miguel Rodríguez Beneyto, and in which his brother Rafael Rodríguez Serrano also worked. Born in Córdoba, Miguel grew up surrounded by wood, tools and the sound of guitars, learning the craft naturally and progressively inside the family workshop, one of the most respected in Spain. And with time one of the best guitar makee in guitar History.

His father, Miguel Rodríguez Beneyto, had laid the foundations of the workshop’s identity, characterised by powerful, balanced and deeply Spanish instruments, guitars appreciated by both classical and flamenco players. Rafael Rodríguez Serrano, Miguel’s brother, also contributed to maintaining this family tradition, although it was Miguel who would become the most recognised representative of the Rodríguez lineage during the second half of the century.

Miguel Rodríguez Serrano developed a personal style that preserved the Córdoba school but added his own sensitivity to timbre and projection. His guitars are known for their immediacy of response, richness of colour and a characteristic mixture of sweetness and brilliance that many guitarists consider unmistakable. During the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties, he built instruments for important professional guitarists, which consolidated his reputation both in Spain and internationally.

Within the family workshop, Miguel was the figure who best balanced tradition and refinement, maintaining the structural concepts inherited from his father while perfecting details of construction, bracing and aesthetics. His guitars, today highly valued on the concert market and among collectors, are considered some of the most representative of the Córdoba sound of the period.

The Rodríguez family workshop, active for several generations, left a deep mark on Spanish guitar history. But it is Miguel Rodríguez Serrano who is remembered as the most refined and expressive voice of this lineage, a craftsman capable of articulating, through his instruments, the essence of the Spanish Traditional guitar at its peak.