Description
Santos Hernandez is one of the elite makers of the historical pantheon – along with Torres and Hauser I in terms of collectibility and historical importance. Santos became a very established maker early in his career when he became known as the builder of the Manuel Ramirez guitar of 1912 that was owned and played by Andres Segovia. Many others have played his instruments, including Regino Sainz de la Maza (for whom the Concierto de Aranjuez was written), Eduardo Abreu, and the Romero family among others.
When Manuel Ramirez died in 1916, Santos continued to work for his widow until at least 1918 when he opened his own shop on Plaza Nicolas Salmeron, no 8, however, even then he may have continued to make guitars for Ramirez’s widow until her death in 1921.
Later he moved his shop to Aduana 27, where he worked until his death in 1943.
This Santos Hernandez concert classical guitar has a lush earthy tone. The basses are firm, the mid-range is fat, the trebles are sweet, lyrical and clear. The guitar sings even in the highest registers.
The label has been dated by Santos Hernandez (the numbers 21 are still visible – hard to recognize – almost faded away), the Spanish foot bears his stamp. This guitar has a top of German spruce, and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
The guitar plays nice, with a low action and it has a straight neck.
During the years the guitar had many repairs and even some changements have been done.
The stripe on the back of the neck has been added. The Bridge is probably not the original one – as well as the nut and the tuning pegs.
One the right side it has a wodden patch from one of the repairs. Some cracks on the top have been repaired as well.
