Manuel Rodríguez Jr. shows us his firts guitar

1936 Rio Rosewood and Red Cedar from the Rocky Mountains are the woods that Manuel Rodríguez Jr., current CEO of MR Guitars, chose back in the days he made his very first guitar.

It was in the city of Madrid, in 1980, at the age of 18. More specifically, in his grandparents’ house located in the number 10 of Calle Santa Elena, close to Quintana metro station. “It used to be a cawshed that we converted in a guitar workshop. In the same place it was a big backyard where we had the truck parked”, says Manuel excited. That truck has a lot of meaning to him, as it has his first guitar.

That first guitar was the result of the passion after the years of training as a luthier, making mandolines and lutes, and helping his father to create the mosaics that decorated the instruments, making them by hand carefuly.

On the other hand, thanks to his childhood in the US, where he was born, Manuel used to make some money teaching Engilsh in a

school near his grandparents’ house, and with this earning he bought his first car: a red Renault 11.

“Back in that time sales were complicated“, the CEO explains, “that is the reason why I left, with that first guitar and in my new car, to travel around Europe, to the United Kingdom, Belgium and France”. This first guitar, back then, was his business card and the reason why he achieved many orders that he would deliver the next years with his truck all over Europe.

Nowadays his beloved guitar still with him. It rests after a long live of traveling in his creator’s office.