Manuel Adalid with his son, Manuel.
The Spanish luthier Manuel Adalid was born in Valencia in 1951. Son, of Manuel Adalid Lazaro (b. 1923) one of the founding partners of Guitarras Francisco Esteve, (established in 1957), Manuel literally grew up in the workshop. Working as an apprentice during his summers, Manuel did a degree in business at the University of Valencia, and then studied business administration.
Afterwards, he opened up a guitar distributorship, and rapidly became one of Guitarras Esteve's most important clients.After five years, however, he decided to return to the Esteve workshop to dedicate himself to guitar construction. Under the guidance of his father and Don Antonio Monfort, he soon became a master luthier. When the founding partners of Esteve reached retirement age, because of his technical and business experience, they asked him to take over the management of the firm. Taking over the management of Esteve in 1980, Manuel built the workshop into a successful enterprise, employing 55 people, and occupying a building of 6000 m2.
The Council of Commerce and Industry of the Government of Valencia has conferred upon him the title of "Master Artisian." A sign of the respect he enjoys among other luthiers in Spain is that he was elected Vice President of the Spanish Guild of Master Guitar Artisans, as well as President of the Spanish Association of Musical Instrument Makers.
In recent years he has been invited to give workshops on Spanish systems of guitar construction in Spain, France, China, and Argentina. Since 2001, he has carried out numerous studies on new technologies of classical guitar construction. He considers these to be his major contribution to the art, and what he enjoys doing most. He now builds guitars under his own name, and is constantly experimenting with the latest in guitar building techniques--carbon fiber bracing, sandwich tops, nomex, etc--seeking ways to combine these with traditional methods to achieve the best quality of sound possible.