Description

Juan Alvarez 1973 – outstanding classical guitar in the style of Santos Hernandez and Marcello Barbero – even Eric Clapton played a similar guitar for “Tears in Heaven”!

Juan Alvarez is a guitar maker in a class of his own. He was born in 1932 and started building guitars with his older brother Lorenzo back in the 1940s.
Later, Juan Alvarez became friends with Marcelo Barbero (1904-1956), one of the great guitar builders of the last century. The latter became Juan’s mentor, providing him with advice and support, from which he says he benefited enormously. Together with Marcelo Barbero, he also had the opportunity to look into the world of guitars of the great Santos Hernandez, because Marcelo Barbero worked for Santos Hernandez’s widow for some time after his death.

In 1952 Juan Alvarez founded his own workshop where he worked until shortly before his death and also trained his son. He also worked together with Arcangel Fernandez and can therefore rightly be called one of the most important guitar builders!
Many professional guitarists played and still play guitars made by Juan Alvarez. His guitars follow the tradition of Santos Hernandez, Marcelo Barbero and Arcangel Fernandez.

Eric Clapton played the same model of a Juan Alvarez guitar and recorded “Tears in Heaven” with it. He also played his Juan Alvarez at his famous MTV unplugged concert in 1992. This guitar was auctioned in 2004 for $253900.
This guitar is also very special as it is exactly in the same building style of Arcangel Fernandez’ guitars (Juan and his brother Lorenzo had a close relationship to Arcangel Fernandez) we had in our shop. They sound almost exactly the same.

This beautiful guitar was built by Juan Alvarez in 1973. It has a spruce top and rosewood back and sides. The scale length is 650 mm and the nut width is 52 mm.

The sound of this instrument is captivating with its warm and characterful tone – the trebles sound clear and brilliant. The basses are powerful and sound dark and warm.
The guitar unfolds an enormous volume and inspires with an incredible Spanish lightness.
It has a high collector’s value and is wonderfully suitable for performances or recordings. It belongs to the top class of instruments we have seen.

The condition of the guitar is good. It has been played a lot and traces of flamenco playing can be seen on the top. It has a repair on the top and one on the back. Also on the side there is a minor repair.

It comes with a hard case.