 The Spanish luthier Manuel
Adalid was born in
Valencia in 1951. Son, of Manuel Adalid Lazaro (b. 1923) one of the founding
partners of Guitarras Francisco Esteve, (established in 1957), Manuel literally
grew up in the workshop. Working as an apprentice during his summers,
Manuel did a degree in business
at the University of Valencia, and then studied
business administration. Afterwards, he opened up a guitar distributorship, and rapidly became one of Guitarras Esteve's most important clients. After five years, however, he decided to return
to the Esteve workshop to dedicate himself to guitar construction. Under the
guidance of his father and Don Antonio Monfort, he soon became a master luthier.
When the founding partners of Esteve reached retirement age, because of his technical and business
experience, they asked him to take over the
management of the firm. Taking over the management of Esteve in 1980, Manuel built
the workshop into a successful enterprise, employing 55 people, and occupying a
building of 6000 m2. The Council of Commerce and Industry of the
Government of Valencia has conferred upon him the title of "Master Artisian."
A sign of the respect he enjoys among other luthiers in Spain is that he was
elected Vice President of the Spanish Guild of Master Guitar Artisans, as well
as President of the Spanish Association of Musical Instrument
Makers. In recent years he has been invited to give workshops on Spanish
systems of guitar construction in Spain, France, China, and Argentina. Since
2001, he has carried out numerous studies on new technologies of classical
guitar construction. He considers these to be his major contribution to the
art, and what he enjoys doing most. He now builds guitars under his own name, and is constantly experimenting with the latest
in guitar building techniques--carbon fiber bracing, sandwich tops, nomex,
etc--seeking ways to combine these with traditional methods to achieve the best
quality of sound possible. |