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Velazquez, Don Manuel Learn More +
Manuel Velazquez was born in February 1917 in Manati, Puerto Rico, the twelfth of 13 children. His mother's parents were from Spain, relatives of the famous Spanish guitar master Santos Hernandez. Fascination with guitars additionally came at an early age to Manuel from his oldest brother, an avid guitarist who also built a few guitars and quatros. Although he was born into a farming family, Velazquez began training as a cabinet maker while still in high school in the city of San Juan. He completed his first real guitar at age 16, and shortly after showed one of his instruments to Jorge Rubiano, who at the time was conductor of a large string orchestra.Rubiano was impressed, and ordered two guitars for the orchestra. Velazquez was building guitars good enough to sell before he was 20 years old, and thanks to Rubiano a few orders began to come his way. The conductor also advised Velazquez to move to New York City to further his career. Velazquez did so in 1941, and when the United States entered World War II he found employment as a woodworker in the shipyards. Years later, he recalled the experience of salvaging the mess tables from a sunken troop ship that had been refloated and brought to the docks. Each table top was about 15 feet long and 2 1/2 inches thick, with matching benches- and all of solid Brazilian Rosewood, the source of Velazquez's first guitar in the US.He made little more than two guitars a year during this period, in the dining room of his apartment. By the late 1940s Velazquez was becoming known to top players in New York, first for repair and gradually for the instruments he made. Rey de la Torre was one player who championed his work in those early years, and around 1950 as more orders came in Velazquez was able to move to a better workshop at 420 3rd Avenue, devoting all his time to guitar making. Players such as Vladimir Bobri and Noah Wolf, among others, helped Velazquez establish an international reputation. As early as 1955 a review in Guitar News called him "by far the best master in the United States" and mentioned favorable comments from Andres Segovia. Velazquez returned to Puerto Rico in 1972, where he settled in the southern portion of the Island, near Ponce, later having a new home built in Juana Diaz. From the basement workshop in his new residence he continued to build guitars, most of which were sold in Japan. In 1982 Velazquez and his wife Beatriz again returned to the United States, spending nine years in Virginia before moving to Orlando, Florida, where they now live. His son Alfredo and daughter Graciela have recently joined the business, and they work together.While Velazquez cites Torres, Santos Hernandez and Hauser as influences, he has been critical in the past of the long string scales and oversized bodies preferred by many builders of recent decades. He has preferred to search for increased power and clarity in the trebles through calibration of each individual soundboard rather than by using strongly-angled, transverse bracing. In general his guitars display somewhat thicker soundboards than usual, but with lighter bracing. When William Cumpiano asked him about soundboard thickness in a 1980 interview, Velazquez gestured by rubbing thumb and forefinger together, replying: "I prefer to use these rather than a caliper. It does not really interest me what the measurement is." He seeks the best tone, volume and balance through careful selection and working of the wood, rather than meddling with the traditional designs.
Winter Springs, FL
Paul Simon, Hituro Suzuki, Rey De La Torre, Jorge Morel, Harry Belafonte, Kurt Rodarmer, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Aaron Shearer, Chet Atkins, Stephen Robinson, Virginia Luque
Torres, Concert Classical
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