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José Ruiz Pedregosa is the only disciple of Jerónimo
Peña Fernández whose guitars are played by such great flamenco players as Monolo
Sanlùcar, Manolo Escobar, and Enrique Montoya. Jerónimo is now
semi-retired, and no longer exports, but continues to build guitars for
collectors. Since José was nine years old, the two men have had a
relationship like that of
father and son. Like his mentor, José builds guitars which
are works of art entirely by hand. I had a
chance to compare Peña's and José's guitars to one another on my last trip to Spain. They are almost
indistinguishable. José's guitars, like those of his mentor, are characterized by
rich, roundness of tone. His production is limited, 15 to 20 guitars a year. Because
José Ruiz Pedregosa is not as well known as his
teacher, and he doesn't have the expenses that makers in Spain's principle cities have,
his guitars remain very affordable. |