CONTRERAS

Manuel Contreras (1928-1994) Joined the Ramirez workshop in Madrid, Spain, in 1959, leaving in 1962 to start building instruments under his own name. They were large, traditionally fan-strutted classical models in the Ramirez mould, which he continued to burld throughout his career. But Contreras was also an experimenter. A conversation with a customer, Celedonio Romero, led him to build, in 1974, the first of his ”double-top” guitars. The second top, which resonates in sympathy with the first, is placed just in front of the instrument’s back. Then in 1983 a discussion with the Uruguayan player Abel Carlevaro led to a more visually arresting experiment. The Carlevaro model had a one-sided waist, a slot around the edge of the top instead of a soundhole, and double sides and back. Contreras’s son Pablo (Manuel Contreras ll), born in 1957, continues to balance tradition and innovation.