The Granada School of Guitar Makers

In 2013 I was contacted by Granada guitar maker John Ray who was commissioned by the Granada Government -Diputación de Granada- to publish a book about the guitar makers of Granada. This nice idea was also inspired and promoted by him. He called me to ask me if I wanted to write this book. To do so, I had to arrange an interview with all the guitar makers in Granada. An arduous task, because although Granada is a relatively small city, in my hometown there are more than 40 guitarreros spread throughout the province. Antonio Marin Montero, Antonio Raya Pardo, Paco Santiago Marin, Rafael Moreno, Jose Marin Plazuelo, Jose Vigil, John Ray, Bellido’s Family, Andres Marvi, Daniele Chiesa … and so on till around 40.

I don’t think I am wrong in saying that it is the place in the world with the highest concentration of high-quality guitar makers. And to bring them all together in agreement and with enthusiasm to appear in the book is not easy. All of us who are in contact with guitar makers know that they are characters with very strong personalities and sometimes it is complicated to communicate with them, especially about telling their story of how they started out as guitar makers and their development over the years in this difficult but fascinating profession. The guitar makers are usually very reserved people. What I also found talking with them is that they all love so much their work, they wake up every day with a tremendous illusion to start working in the job they love. But it is true that many of them they are also very reserved and want most of the time to keep their intimate atmosphere of working in solitude with the wood.

The stars came together and they all gave their ok.
And so this book was made possible, in which I try to describe the history and the present of guitar making in my beautiful hometown Granada with the guitar makers who have been trained here and their different stories.

In this book, we also had the honor of the participation of personalities in the world of Classical Guitar who offered excellent and very interesting articles about the Granada School of Guitar Makers. Such were the musicologists Aaron García Ruíz, David Gansz, Angelo Gilardino and guitarist Javier Molina.

Alberto Cuellar – Madera Guitarras Founder