Benito Ferrer, was born in Orihuela (Alicante) in 1845.

He
moved to Granada at a very young age, where he started studying
medicine. But he liked the zambra (flamenco bar) in Sacromonte,
and he built a guitar for himself so he could play in the zambra. His
guitar was so popular that he set up his first workshop in Calle
Jarrera (1875). Later on, he moved to Callejn de las Campanas,
and finally, to Calle Santiago.

Fruit of his talent

were the exact and final rules for the distribution of the frets in
the bandurria and spanish lute, and the change from the old gut
and silk strings to metal ones. In order to put into practice all
these ideas, he had to reinforce the interior of the instrument
considerably, so it would support the pressure of the metal strings.
His guitars went through several stages, taking shape, and
developing to take the current form.

Things went quite well. For instance, while an instrument normally

cost six pesetas, he managed to sell them for fifteen. The highest
price that was paid for one of his guitars was one hundred and
fifty pesetas, which was not bad at that time.

Well-known people such as Recuerda, Molina Ziga and Manuel

Jofr, among many others, played his instruments. Andrs Segovia,
in his first moments, which were hard, received a beautiful gift
from Don Benito: a studio guitar.
In his workshop his nephew Eduardo Ferrer, among others, learnt
the trade.

Eduardo Ferrer, was born in Granada in 1905. In his early

teens, he started learning the trade in his uncles Benito Ferrer
workshop. When his uncle passed away he took over the workshop,
which continued to operate until his death.

He taught the trade to nearly all the guitar makers in Granada

while some of them, at the same time, have or have had other
pupils.
The Yamaha factory, in Japan, hired him for 3 years (1966, 1967
and 1968), to go there for three months each year, and advise
them about the how to make better guitars.

His building system is traditional, in short, that of his uncle and

Torres. He admires innovation but admits that after going crazy
doing his own research, he had to go back to the traditional
method. He thinks that with Antonio Torres and Benito Ferrer,
there is nowhere left to innovate. He explains that the secret for
a guitar to sound good should be in the wood, in the grain, because
otherwise building six guitars from the same wood and in the exact
same way, it would be impossible that some of them sound good and
some others dont.

His love for string instruments makes him good at playing some of
them: the bandurria the lute and the guitar, at least enough to
know if they sound good or not.

In 1975, his Granada guitar making colleagues, paid tribute to him,

showing their admiration and gratitude on the occasion of the
100th anniversary of the founding of Casa Ferrer.
 Antonio Durn, was born in
Granada in 1940. He began the trade with Antonio Marn and
Manuel Lpez, and later on he moved to Casa Ferrer where he made

castanets and then guitars.

In 1957 he had a work-related accident in which he lost his right

arm. The following year, he started up his own workshop, which
became another apprentice school, where some of the current
guitar makers in Granada learnt the trade.

He also had the habit, shared with many young guitar makers, of
selling his instruments without label to veterans. Luckily, he
overcame that shyness and since then the instruments have his
own label. In the end, it is he who runs the workshop and

everything that is done in it.

He applies the Ferrer system to classical guitars. He modifies

flamenco guitars in another way.

He was very into flamenco. He usually went to flamenco festivals

and some flamenco clubs. He was friends with numerous flamenco
artists, with whom he shared not only the art of flamenco but also
friendship. In fact, most of them, when they came to Granada, did
not doubt to go to his house, which was always open for everyone
to enjoy his hospitality.