Born in Madrid, Spain, in 1949, the luthier Angel Benito Aguado began to work as a carpenter, learning the fundamentals of wood working when he was but a young boy. At age 12, he built his first guitar By the time he was twenty-five, he had established himself as professional guitar maker. For many years Angel collaborated with the celebrated Spanish maestro, Jose Miguel Moreno, building for him and the ancient music ensembles he directs a variety of historical plucked stringed instruments: vihuelas, baroque guitars, lutes, theorbos, and romantic guitars.

Angel is unique among guitar makers in that he cannot be claimed by any of the guitar schools, being largely self taught. He collaborated early in his career with Jose Miguel Moreno and his wife. Out of this early collaboration date many of the early music guitars, but the early music clarity and sensitivity carries over into the building of his contemporary guitars such as the Marizapalos, Marieta and Espanoleta.

They are all incredibly easy to play on the left hand and incredibly musical. Although the Marizalos is only an advanced study model it boasts 1AA grade aged tone woods and has superb clarity and musicality and real concert presence. This would explain why so many Madrid conservatorium students use a Marizapalos to undertake the arduous and long guitar qualification and also why on a Friday evening his workshop is abuzz with both established concert performers and up an coming players.

Ferociously intelligent and detail oriented, Angel’s guitars are a pleasure to play and sound excellent even in the shorter scales lengths of 630, 640 right down to 620.

I was impressed the first time I arrived at Angel’s workshop to find how well-tuned and balanced Angel’s creations are. The notes cascade and “play nicely” with each other with a tinkling musicality that is refreshing; add to this the ease of playing and this becomes an enchanting guitar that you can just let your fingers drift up and down the fretboard, even on the difficult pieces you’re still trying to bed down.

Features

• Front : Canadian Red Cedar (solid)
• Back and sides : Ziricote (laminate)
• Fingerboard : African ebony
• Neck : Samanguila

Orders typically take 1-3 business days to process and ship. When items are out of stock, they will be dispatched no more than 10 days after ordering. For urgent orders please contact us first to confirm stock availability.