Antonio Marin Montero, 2014

Every Granada maker working today stands somewhere in the shadow of Antonio Marin Montero. This 2014 Marin Montero is the model he is most famous for, the Bouchet, built in spruce and Brazilian rosewood.

The model exists because of a friendship. Marin built guitars alongside the French luthier Robert Bouchet and was deeply inspired by both his design and his sound, and the guitar that grew out of that exchange became the one players around the world associate with his name. Everything you hope to find is here: the classic Marin rosette, echoed in the tie block of the bridge, his unmistakable headstock, and a traditional solid spruce top. Marin never built a double top or a lattice guitar, and this instrument makes a strong case that he never needed to.

The model also has a history with us. For years Evan traveled the guitar festival circuit alongside a close friend who performed on a Marin Montero from this very same year, 2014. Set against everything the luthiers brought to those festivals, that guitar was always the one that sounded the most special, admired for its clarity, its sheer power, and a raw Spanish character that only grew as it was pushed. This guitar belongs to the same family, and it shows.

Spanish music simply sings on this guitar. It has the voice people mean when they talk about a great Granada instrument: clear, bright, and lyrical on top, with roaring, sustain-filled basses underneath and a raw Spanish edge that is never more obvious than in a rasgueado.

What we love most is the sheer responsiveness to touch. Barely pluck a string and the guitar hums with sustain, especially in the bass register, where a reverberant bloom sits under even the lightest stroke.

Then lean in. Give it more power and the voice separation comes forward and the basses begin to growl. That is a quality missing from a lot of modern guitars. Instruments built first for power and volume often give up some of that dynamic range, and are perhaps meant to be played more lightly, with the sound arriving easily. This guitar asks for the opposite. It feels as though there is no limit to how hard it can be pushed: it keeps sounding great, and it keeps handing back more clarity and more body the further you go.

And when the music calls for it, the guitar turns on a dime. Pull back and the same instrument becomes intimate and sweet, and it glows.

For the player after a traditional Spanish sound with real volume behind it, and enough character to keep exploring for years, this is a very complete answer. The setup is standard and familiar: a 650mm scale, a 52.5mm nut, and action at the 12th fret of 4mm on the sixth string and 3mm on the first.

This is an all traditional build: a solid spruce top over five fan bracing, with no composite layers and no lattice anywhere in sight. The spruce is fine grained and shows lively cross silking across both halves of the soundboard.

Turn the guitar around and it gets dramatic. The back and sides are a spectacular set of Brazilian rosewood, dark and straight grained, with a striking blaze of sapwood running down the center of the back. It is the kind of set that stops a conversation.

The details are pure Marin. His classic rosette is repeated in miniature on the tie block, where the mosaic sits inside a frame of mother of pearl. The headstock carries his familiar profile, fitted with Pagos tuning machines, which are accurate and hold their tuning very well. Inside, the label is signed by Marin and reads Granada.

Specifications

Model: Bouchet

Label: Signed, Granada

Back & Sides: Brazilian Rosewood with sapwood center

Bracing: Five fan

Action: 4mm bass, 3mm treble at the 12th fret

Bridge: Tie block with rosette mosaic framed in mother of pearl

Antonio Marin Montero was born in Granada in 1933 and came to the guitar through cabinetmaking. He learned the craft in the workshop of Eduardo Ferrer and went on to become the leading figure of the Granada school, the maker whose instruments carried the city's name to concert stages around the world.

In 1977 he met the French luthier Robert Bouchet. The two built guitars together, and Marin returned to Granada with Bouchet's blessing to go on building the design they had worked out. He built that model for decades, and it remains the guitar most closely tied to his name.

For more than forty years he worked alongside his nephew Jose Marin Plazuelo, he mentored a generation of Granada makers, and since 2017 the guitar making competition at the Granada International Guitar Festival has carried his name. Marin was already past eighty when he built this guitar, and his output has slowed considerably in the years since.

This guitar is in excellent condition and presents far younger than its years, with a clean soundboard and only light signs of use.