Ariel Ameijenda was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1963 as the son of renowned guitar maker Manuel Ameijenda. His father had learned the craft from Juan Carlos Santurion, who had studied at Ignacio Fleta’s workshop in Barcelona in the early 1950s.
In 1957 the elder Ameijenda opened his own workshop, which he shared for several years with José López Cubillo. Cubillo had been the lead craftsman in the workshop of José Ramírez II in Madrid. As a result, Ariel’s father gained direct insight into techniques from both major Spanish schools of guitar making in Madrid and Barcelona.
He also acquired extensive knowledge by repairing instruments made by some of the world's finest luthiers. Andrés Segovia lived in Montevideo for nine years, and wherever he went, exceptional guitars followed. Instruments by makers such as Hauser, Simplicio and Santos Hernández regularly passed through the Ameijenda workshop, providing a close view of their construction.
As a child assisting in his father’s workshop, Ariel learned techniques used by leading makers of classical guitars as well as renaissance and baroque string instruments. More importantly, the passion for this craft developed naturally and early. At the age of fourteen, under his father’s guidance, he progressed from repair work to building his first instruments.
At nineteen he entered the University to study Musicology, where he focused on Acoustics and Music History. These studies significantly shaped his understanding of guitar construction and historical instruments.
In 1997 Ariel opened his own workshop in Montevideo and now builds guitars and period string instruments for musicians worldwide. His reputation expanded internationally after presenting his instruments in the United States at the Alexandria Guitar Festival in 2007 and the New York Guitar Seminar in 2008.
Today he also teaches at the Escuela Universitaria de Música, offering a course on the history of guitar construction from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. In 2011 he taught this course at the Universidad Federal de Paraná in Argentina and at the EMBAP Guitar Academic Symposium in Curitiba, Brazil.
In 2014 Ariel moved his workshop to the Cerro de los Burros near Piriápolis on Uruguay’s east coast to meet the increasing demand for his instruments and to devote himself fully to building guitars of his own design.
The Craft
Classical guitar construction at concert level demands years of accumulated knowledge: how individual pieces of timber vibrate, how bracing patterns affect tonal balance, how small changes in geometry shift the character of an instrument. A finished concert guitar typically represents several hundred hours of hand work. Every decision — wood selection, arch height, brace dimensions — shapes what a player can do with the finished instrument.
