>Asking who is the most authoritative classical guitar luthier of history and you quickly come to realize that it is a really difficult, if not impossible, question to answer.

One person who probably has made the most difference and who still has an impact on the modern classical guitar was Antonio Torres. His birth place was in Spain in 1817. He was able to drastically strengthen the frame of the guitar by a technique known as fan-strutting as he was quite gifted being both a player and an excellent craftsman of the time. Torres was among the few that realized more than most guitar makers that both precision and refinement were all important if the instrument was to be improved at all.

Another well known luthier that may also be regarded as one of the foremost of all time is Jose Ramirez together with a younger brother named Manuel. They were both born in Madrid, Spain and between them established a long family line of unequalled quality guitar makers. It is still well known in guitar circles that a “Ramirez” is still very much a status symbol and one of the most desired and popular guitars amongst classical players of today.

It was well known that the two brothers argued a lot and that they eventually parted company, the Ramirez brothers built guitars of great quality though differing in design from each other. Jose became fashionable with Flamenco players because the tone production along with a lighter construction served their purposes. This by no means suggests his classical instruments were inferior, indeed the opposite actually is true.

Another one of the great guitar builders of all time could have easily been Hermann Hauser. A very talented classical guitar maker who blessed us all in 1882 and died some 70 years later in 1952. His guitars were so good that even the redoubtable Segovia was impressed by the quality of his work. Segovia wa sable to eventually encouraged Hauser to copy his 1912 Manuel Ramirez guitar, a very prized instrument of such great quality that it was generally believed to have been constructed by the great Santos Hernandez himself.

Segovia made many famous recordings with that wonderful classical guitar over the years which helped to seal his reputation as one of the pre-eminent guitar makers of the day. Any Music Directory worth it’s salt will have a mention of him somewhere.

Paulino Bernabe is another great guitar builders of all time. Not only one of the finest classical guitar makers we have seen but he is also inextricably linked to all classical guitar history. To explain this a little more, not only did he study with possibly the most famous modern day classical guitar maker Ramirez but incredibly he mastered classical guitar playing with Daniel Fortea, another very famous student of Tarrega. Bernabe’s trade was that of cabinet maker, like so many great classical guitar makers were or are.

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