Hernandez y Aguado Style Guitar - Douglas Fir Top, Mahogany Back and Sides

The classic guitar is a delicate equation painstakingly conceived to produce a brilliant, balanced tone over its entire playable range.

Irving Sloane, Classic Guitar Construction, 1966


The young guitar student that I mentioned in my last post came to my shop yesterday to take delivery on the Douglas fir/mahogany guitar. It is a close copy of a guitar made in 1968 by the great Spanish makers, Manuel Hernandez and Victoriano Aguado.

The top is from a salvaged Douglas fir board...

...and the back and sides are Honduran mahogany.


The young man played several Catalan songs arranged by Miguel Llobet, I thought I was listening to an old recording of Andres Segovia! This guitar has an old Spanish-like quality to it that gave me goose bumps, it sounds so wonderful! I can't wait to hear this guitar in six months!

I hope to get a chance to record the young man and his guitar this winter so I can post the videos on this blog.

He and his father gave me a deposit so I can start working on another guitar for him.

He really likes the Douglas fir for its sound, now I need to convince him to let me use sustainable woods that grow here in North America for the rest of the guitar...