Classical Guitars: 1934 Santos Hernandez (1874-1943) SOLD Classical Guitar
Santos Hernandez SOLD
please inquire for price
656 mm SCALE, 52 mm NUT. Fine to Medium grain Domed Spruce Soundboard and Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. All Original French Polish. 7 fan braces. Very closely spaced separate kerfing pieces attaching the sides to the top and back, being the highest form of lutherie. This guitar has a matching Deluxe Rosette and Tie Block on the bridge. Purple Ink Stamp on the Spanish Foot above the label: "Santos Hernandez, Luthier, Aduana 27, Madrid". Original Tuners. Original Bone Nut, New Bone Saddle. I setup all guitars at Standard Specifications, Classical string height: 5 /32" on the 6th string, 4 /32" on the 1st string. This also comes with a flamenco setup Bone saddle to have the height become: 4 /32" on the 6th string, 3 /32" on the 1st string.
I have included a photo of a certificate from the "Escuela Superior de Artes o Industrias Madrid 1902-1903" for Santos Hernandez.
Santos Hernandez was 60 years old when he fabricated this resonant instrument, he had been involved making guitars at least since he was 16 years old.
Before Santos Hernandez Rodriguez began to work for Manuel Ramirez circa 1897-1898, around 1890, he had worked for Valentin Viudes y Soriano at calle Toledo 34, Madrid and then later just 2 blocks away with Rafael Ortega Avila at calle Toledo 55, Madrid. Contrary to what has been written on the internet: Santos did not travel to Granada to work at the Jose Ortega Ruiz workshop. In 1934 Domingo Prat mentions in his "Diccionario de Guitarristas y Guitarreros" that Santos worked for Viudes and Ortega. When Antonio Pascual Emilio Viudes y Aznar (1883-1961) left to move to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1909 , at that time Santos was then made foreman of the Manuel Ramirez workshop.
Santos was the most widely recorded guitar maker before WWII, having made the 1912 Manuel Ramirez guitar that Andres Segovia used in concert and to record with until 1937. Here's a link to a long article I wrote on that subject in March of 1997: http://finefretted.org/html/desde_el_escritorio_march_13__.html
This model offered at our store is the same as used by Vicente Gomez in the film "Blood and Sand", when you see the video on You Tube you will recognize that the back and sides are Rosewood and not light colored Cypress. There was no distinction of Classical and Flamenco guitars until after WWII, they were not delineated in the catalogs of the makers either, be it Domingo Esteso, Francisco Simplicio, Manuel Ramirez, Jose Ramirez, etc. They were Concert Guitars or Student Guitars (guitarras economicas). It's not known who was the first person after WWII to use the terms "Classical and Flamenco guitars", but DJ Alan Freed is known to have coined the phrase "Rock and Roll".