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C. Vega -> RE: Sobrinos de Santos Hernández (Dec. 8 2013 0:00:24)
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No, I can not tell you specifically where or from whom Santos Bayon sourced his guitars. Sorry about that. Bayon was a minor figure in the history of guitar making and there just isn't all that much information out there about him. Perhaps James Greenberg can give you some contact information for his son Santos Bayon. Greenberg used to sell his guitars on occasion.
The fact remains, however, that what you have is a guitar that most likely was made in one of the numerous factories and smaller production workshops in and around Valencia. These operations usually make and sell guitars under their own labels but also build guitars for other shops. Sometimes they are made to the buyer's specifications as are some of the models that Ramirez offers and sometimes they are simply re-labeled production offerings with perhaps a different rosette or headstock design if the order is large enough to warrant a production change. Currently, guitar manufacturers like Alhambra, Raimundo, Esteve, Saez and numerous others offer these instruments but there have been manufacturers doing this since at least the early years of the last century. The Ramirez archives in Madrid has invoices from the Valencian firm of Telesforo Julve to Jose Ramirez I dating from around 1920 for wood, tuning machines, cases, etc. as well as finished guitars, bandurrias and laudes.
Nearly every guitar shop in Spain sells outsourced/factory guitars. Some are very up front about it, others are not but either way, they are out there in very large numbers and have been for a long time. To say that 95% of the guitars made in Spain are this type of instrument is probably a very conservative estimate. The Alhambra factory alone produces nearly 50,000 instruments annually.
It's hardly worth getting all upset about it unless you paid a large amount of money for it.
That fact that your guitar happens to play well and sound good is a plus for you but it's not all that unusual. Many of these guitars are actually rather nice instruments.
I'm not trying to put down your guitar or give you a hard time but rather I'm just calling it as I see it and stating a few simple facts. You asked for comments, clues, etc. and I gave you mine. You can choose to believe it or not, that's up to you, but I refuse to get into a childish pissing contest over it. You can do whatever you wish with the information.
I've already wasted way too much time on this thread.
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