Paulino Bernabe
I was born among guitars, on 9 June 1960 in Madrid, in the workshop where my father worked.
We lived upstairs and I was lucky enough that from a very young age I always saw how my father worked with the wood, selecting it and treating it with love and respect; he would tell me to look for the best woods and that they would always thank you for their quality, so that I could make a good guitar.
Later, when my father became independent, a new period in his life began, the workshop was in our family home in Loto Street and I continued to learn the secrets of good guitar making, directly from father to son; there was always time to be in the workshop and so much so that I soon left my studies to work seriously, doing what I liked most, helping my father.
At the age of 17 I began my career as an apprentice guitar maker, with the best and most difficult Master; he was a perfectionist and any work he taught me had to be well done; he was always telling me the secrets of how to use the tool and the knowledge of the life of the wood; so, first I learned from my Master, and then over the years I was able to work as an equal, always attentive to his advice and his good ways of seeing a profession that he had as an art.
And together we have spent 30 years of daily work, even when we rested or had holidays, we were always thinking about the future and how to achieve the Great Guitar.
Now that challenge is mine and I hope that after his death, he will always help me to achieve what he wanted most, to continue making guitars, which is what he prepared me for all his life.
And I hope to do the same with my children, if they want to follow this beautiful profession of making good guitars.
