Vicente Arias 1875 copy 2025

The original of this guitar arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 2017 to be restored by conservator Ian Watchorn. It arrived in almost unplayable condition and while in pieces on the bench Ian meticulously measured and drew up plans to build another just like it. So here we have a faithful replica of that very guitar.

The original guitar has quite a story to tell so I have included some original photos and here is a little correspondence between Ian and the owner.

“The history of the guitar I can tell you the guitar came from the Canary Islands into Spain (Madrid) it was purchased by the
owner’s father in the 1940’s and was played for some time in the family home and then used by the daughter to have lessons (in fact
the daughter’s teacher commented on the beauty of the guitar) until being put away and only played very infrequently for the past 20
or so years. The owner was not a guitar player as such, but a lover of guitar music. He was on a trip to Malaga I believe when he
heard the gypsy player playing this guitar and he was so taken by the sound of the guitar that he just had to buy it. So, he offered the
gypsy player an amount of money (unknown) and the guitar was his.”

This beautiful handmade guitar comes with a Kingham MTM made to measure case imported from the UK