He uses bracing inspired by that of Santos, with an reinforcement placed under the bridge.
At the age of 18, he set himself up as a luthier in Madrid To this day he continues, at the age of 83, to build guitars, copy historic instruments and make reproductions of guitars by Hernández y Aguado, Santos Hernández and Antonio de Torres. He is the owner of one of Spain’s best guitar collections and still finds the time to play “at least half an hour each evening”. What follows is an interview conducted with this outstanding “guitarrero” in his Madrid workshop, while he was working on guitar N°1,000. Orfeo - Your training as a young man was twofold: as a cabinetmaker in a Madrid workshop; and as a student of music, studying guitar under Daniel Fortea... López Nieto - “Yes, since I loved working with wood, I learned cabinetmaking in a workshop in the street named Calle del Olmo, in Madrid. One day, in 1945, my mother had the radio on, and I
heard the tremolo of Tárrega’s «Recuerdos de la Alhambra» for the first time. I was so awestruck that I said: Mamma, I want to learn to play the guitar! And so that is how I come to know Maestro Fortea and study under him.” Orfeo - How did you learn to make guitars? L. N. - “Since I was into wood-working, my uncle gave me a guitar – made in Valencia – which was in rather a bad state. By examining the way in which it had been made, I was able to make another one, doing it my own way. When I was 18 years old, in 1949, I set myself up as a guitar-maker in Calle Jesús y María.” Orfeo - When did you meet the widow of Santos Hernández? L. N. - “From 1948 to 1953, I studied under Daniel Fortea and he had one guitar made by Manuel Ramírez, from Calle Arlabán, and two guitars by