Felix Manzanero, Ole!       (b.1937, d. August, 2019)    By Ronald Fernandez

    By 1966 my father, John Fernandez, was importing guitars from Felix Manzanero Cabrera of Madrid. He sold most of them through Seiko Sesoko who owned All Guitar Center in Anaheim, California. Some of these guitars were bought by Laurindo Almeida and Manitas de Plata.

      I got to know Felix in 1967 when I attended summer school at the Universidad de Madrid. His shop was one of the first working shops I had seen. I was amazed. We became friends and occasionally stayed out late visiting strange eateries or playing tangos on his laud and my guitar in local mesons (traditional Spanish taverns). Among my memories in his shop was meeting Sabicas when he returned to Spain after a 30 year absence and playing farrucas with his brother Diego.

      Felix was born in 1937 in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. He father was a blind musician. At age 14 Felix apprenticed at the shop of Jose Ramirez II where he spent 12 years. He made 1000+ guitars there. Those guitars are identified by his initials stamped inside. I once repaired a "Jose Ramirez 1a" flamenco guitar owned by Neil Diamond identified as a Felix Manzanero by the ink stamp inside. Of significance is the fact that Felix was making guitars under Jose Ramirez III while the modern 1-A classical, which Andres Segovia eventually embraced, was evolving.

      In 1964 Felix opened a retail store with his workshop at 12 Calle Santa Ana in the Latina section of Madrid. There he built Madrid School guitars from old wood and taught his two sons to do the same. He also built experimental instruments such as an elliptical guitar, one without braces, several with soundboards of both cedar and spruce, and a laud with 12 sympathetic strings. He developed a method for testing soundboards before permanently affixing them to the body.

      Over decades he acquired over 100 old guitars dating back to the 18th century. This collection had been viewable on the web at www.guitarrasmanzanero.com for many years.

       In 1985 he was invited by the Mexican Government to present a Course on Spanish Guitar Construction in Paracho, Michoacan. This was an important opportunity for Mexican makers. German Vazquez Rubio in Los Angeles, California and Benito Huipe told me that they attended the course.

       My friend Felix was fun to be with--he was warm, friendly and open. He loved his wife. He loved to travel. He drove all over Spain. He came to visit  California a few times and hand carried an unvarnished Flamenco Guitar for me to French Polish.
He went to Cuba ans Egypt with his wife. I would refer people to see him in Madrid and he would take them to his local bar-restaurant across the street and treat them royally.

       He had a thick Madrid accent. His family had been in Madrid for many generations. Felix had a brother Pedro who had worked at the Ramirez shop and apparently did repairs (I never met him).

       He was survived by his charming wife, Soledad, and his sons, Felix Jr. and Ivan. Ivan makes guitars, preserves the Manzanero Guitar Collection of Antique Instruments and runs the business in the original shop.

       Oh yes, before I forget, comedies and ham. Felix loved Spanish dried ham, in his Madrid flat (apartment) he had a full leg of Patas Negras (the best Spanish ham) and a special holding device located in the kitchen. In his living room he had small statues of the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy.