José María Vilaplana
Son of José María Vilaplana Vilaplana, equally luthier, and one of the founders of Manufacturas Alhambra, has an extensive experience in building guitars since he started in this exciting profession of Luthier at the early age of 16.
After gaining experience in various tasks within the company, at the age 28, coinciding with the move to the new facilities, a new workshop was built to reach two different objectives: first building their own guitars which were marketed under the José María Vilaplana name and secondly, the development of new models, testing, prototypes and special orders, such as guitars of 8 and 10 strings.
Within the range of experiments, some of them are already part of the Alhambra Guitars museum and we have to mention, in a special way, guitars with lower hole, double hole, double top and double internal side. Equally, there are many bracing designs with different sizes and arrangements.
His first instruments were built with 656 mm. scale and it was quite normal to get orders to build guitars with 660 mm. scale. Over time, although he still allowed orders with 660 mm. scale, the scale was standardized and now it is 650 mm.
As an expert, he knows how important is the influence of the finish on the sound and he has always treated carefully the finish on his guitars.
His good taste to make everything perfect together with an exquisite finish of his guitars makes possible to please the most demanding professional guitarists.
His knowledge has been passed on to the current Luthiers generation.
