Hernandez y Aguado – 1972

Description

The two friends Santiago Diaz Martinez, better known as Manuel Hernandez, and Victoriano Aguado Rodriguez got to know each other while working together in a piano factory. After the factory closed, they founded their own company that initially focused on the restauration of furniture and pianos. The two first guitars privately built between 1945 and 1948, which were also played and examined by Regio Sainz de la Maza, were a very encouraging experience and the two friends decided to keep on building guitars. In 1948 Modesto Borreguero, who had worked in the workshop of the famous luthier Manuel Ramirez, joined Manuel Hernandez und Victoriano Aguado Rodriguez, and they started to increasingly focus on the making of guitars – with huge success. Famous artists, such as John Williams, Julian Bream and Atahualpa Yupanqui played „HyA“guitars.

This beautiful 1972 guitar numbered 103, is an absolute rarity in excellent condition. With its cedar top and cypress back and sides, it is genuinely one of a kind. Built like a classical guitar and not like a flamenco instrument as one could think at first glance, its responsiveness, tone color, and playability are world-class. This guitar is one of the handfuls of very rare instruments built by A. Castro. The latter replaced Victoriano Aguado at the French polish section as V. Aguado left the workshop for health reasons in 1970. A. Castro’s signature on the back reinforcement, along with the inscription on the label “Para nuestro operario con cariño” testimony of the close relationship between Hernandez and Castro and their collaboration on this instrument.

This guitar’s condition is excellent for such a vintage guitar, and only some superficial playing marks are to be seen on the varnish. The structural integrity of this instrument is perfect. It is interesting to note that the head was made of several pieces of cedar, and the label wears the original Hernandez y Aguado signature. Another exciting feature is the specially ordered Rodgers tuners that match the sculpture on the head plate. These have been added later, replacing the worn Fustero tuners due to years of intensive playing. The regularity with which this guitar was played gave it an exceptional richness and maturity of tone, along with great openness and remarkable playing ease.