Uyaguari Familiy's Musical Instruments Workshop

A prestigious brand of musical instruments is Uyaguari-Quezada. It has the support of the experience and professionalism of a family of luthiers, which for 4 generations has been dedicated to the construction mainly of the classic guitar.

 

The ancestor of the Uyaguari family comes from the parish of San Bartolomé, "the cradle of guitars", in the canton of Sígsig. The artisan workshop is located in their house, Arquímedes street, Bellavista neighborhood, Cuenca. There, Luis Enrique and Pablo Andrés work together, making beautiful guitars.

 

Pablo is the fourth generation of a family dedicated to the construction of stringed instruments. His father Luis, a craftsman since he was 13 years old, is the third of eight children of Julio Uyaguari, a native of the Sigsillano neighborhood. The "dynasty" would have started with Isidoro Uyaguari, Luis' grandfather. An anecdote tells that one day Isidoro disassembled a guitar to understand how it worked. That moment was the beginning of the family tradition.

 

Art, passion, professionalism, tireless dedication, identity, creativity. These are the opinions of those who have visited the Uyaguari-Quezada workshop, describing their instruments as "authentic wooden jewels", delicate, subtle, moving.

 

Although the Uyaguari specialty is classical guitars, they also make charangos, tiples, bandolas, bandolines. In other words, they are authentic luthiers in the original sense of the word. They use the most noble raw materials: capuli, cypress, teak and walnut.

 

The sound of a guitar is defined by the soundboard. The two craftsmen dedicate more time to this piece, since the perfection of the instrument depends on it. Another skill that only gives the knowledge of the trade is the sensitivity through touch, to judge if a guitar is worth or not. Father and son are music lovers, the result of their work. They love Ecuadorian music, Cuban trova, the new Latin American song and rock.

 

A luthier is a person who builds, adjusts or repairs stringed instruments such as guitars, cuatros or lutes. Today this name is extended to any artisan who repairs musical instruments in general, including wind and percussion instruments.