Antonio Marín

Antonio Marín was born in Granada in 1933. He began his career working with wood as a cabinetmaker. His friendship with Manuel Bellido led him to visit Bellido while he was working as a guitar maker in the workshop of Master Eduardo Ferrer. The precarious working methods of the guitar makers contrasted sharply with the advancements already present in cabinetmaking, something that strongly caught Antonio Marín’s attention. Both Marín and Bellido decided to work together and began building bandurrias and lutes before making their first guitars, which they signed under the label Montero Bellido.

Their background as cabinetmakers led them to develop new systems to perfect and evolve the assembly of their instruments, and their guitars soon achieved remarkable quality. The renowned guitarist Manuel Cano introduced them to the Madrid-based luthier Manuel Contreras, who began sending them wood so they could build guitars for him to sell in his Madrid shop.

Shortly afterward, Antonio Marín and Manuel Bellido began exporting guitars to Japan. Through the initiative of some Japanese clients, both were introduced to the already-famous French luthier Robert Bouchet in 1977. After the dissolution of Montero Bellido, Antonio Marín spent several months in France working in Robert Bouchet’s workshop, where he built three instruments together with the French luthier. Upon returning to Spain, Master Marín asked for permission to continue building the guitar they had designed together—a model he still builds to this day.

Over time, Antonio Marín became the leading figure of the Granada School, and his instruments are admired worldwide. He has also mentored other renowned guitar makers such as his nephew José Marín Plazuelo and José González López (his nephew’s brother-in-law), with whom he shares a workshop, as well as other notable luthiers like his nephew Francisco Santiago Marín, René Baarslag, and Rafael Moreno. Since 2017, the Granada International Guitar Festival has held an annual guitar-making competition in his honor: the Antonio Marín Guitar-Making Competition.