The Spanish luthier Vícente Carrillo Casas was born in Casasimarro in the province of Cuenca in 1963 into a family of luthiers that included: his great grandfather, D. Blas Carrillo Alarcón (1836-1919); his grandfather D. Vícente Carrillo López (1881-1962); and his father, D. Vicente Carrillo Cantos (1926-1971). Following the death of his father, when he was only 8 years old, his mother, Gabriela Casas Fornier (1928-2005) took over the Carrillo shop which at the time employed a number of master craftsmen. In 1997, Gabriela was recognized as a master craftsman by the government of Castilla-La Mancha. In 1984, after military service, Vícente decided to learn the family business, studying not only with the various luthiers in their shop-- but also with a number of guitar makers of the Madrid school, among them Angel Benito Aguado and Jose Romero, whose friendship and professional advice he continues to value. Since Vicente Carrillo Casas took over, he has re-built he family business, which now employs a number of master artisans, and under his leadership the quality of the flamenco and classical guitars made has drawn wide international acceptance. Although the Vicente Carrillo firm could be described as a guitar factory, this description is not entirely accurate--there are no production lines, fancy machinery, rather each instrument is made by an individual artisan by hand using traditional techniques. In 2010 the government of Castilla La Mancha in recognition of his craftsmanship awarded him a prize, and he also received a National award as an artisan.
Vicente Carrillo is an innovative luthier and continues to explore various construction techniques to improve his guitars, and to meet the needs professional guitarists who use his guitars, among them Paco de Lucía, Tomatito, JM Canizares, El Niño Josele, Vicente Amigo, Rafael Cañizares, Javier Limón, Keith Richards, Josemi Carmona.
His classical and flamenco guitars have that old Madrid tone that is characterized by a proper balance between powerful bass and treble sound sweet.