Jesús Bellido
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The Spanish luthier Jesús Bellido (born 1966) is a member of one of Granada's leading families of guitar makers. Both his father, Manuel López Bellido and his uncle José López Bellido have achieved international fame as luthiers. Taught by his father, Jesús began his career as a guitar maker when he was 14 years old. By the time he has 17, he was already making and selling guitars under his own name, but continued building guitars in his father's workshop until he finished his B.A. in the natural sciences at the Universidad de Granada. In 1989 he established his own workshop. In the same year, the Junta de Andalucia backed by the National Employment Institute, named Jesús Bellido professor of guitar making, to offer courses to train future guitar makers. In 1995, he decided to quit teaching and build full time. Jesús builds traditional small bodied classical and flamenco guitars derived from Torres, typical of the Granada school. Although he builds entirely by hand, using traditional methods, following the footsteps of his father, who was always investigating new ways to improve the instrument, Jesús also carries on his own lines of research. Recognizing that there are numerous variable that luthiers cannot control, he carries out controlled experiments building one set of guitars using his current system, and another with certain modifications. Although Jesús Bellido seeks to combine the traditional with the most modern building techniques, his experiments are guided by the tonal character of the traditional guitar, so he only adopts those elements that move toward its perfection. These experiments have led Jesús to radically redesign the bracing of the soundboard. Nonetheless, Jesus builds classical and flamenco guitars using both his new system and traditional bracing. |
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