Manuel Rodríguez · CITES Appendix II
El Caminero was built by Manuel Rodríguez e Hijos in Madrid in 2002. Its back and sides are Madagascar rosewood, Dalbergia baronii, listed under CITES Appendix II in June 2013, after international concern about illegal logging in Madagascar. The listing came eleven years after this guitar was made.
Since then the timber has not crossed a border without permits, and commercial trade in Malagasy rosewood has spent years under suspension. A luthier today cannot simply buy this wood and build with it. That is not true of anything else in the archive, including the Ramírez. Every other instrument here could be made again by someone with the skill and the timber. This one was finished eleven years before the door closed, and the difference is the material rather than the maker.
Material Provenance
It is the archive's only crossover. Cedar over Madagascar rosewood is a classical configuration, and a Madrid workshop in 2002 built it for a market that wanted both traditions in one instrument.
Instrument Record
| Instrument Name | El Caminero · The Road-Walker |
| Maker | Manuel Rodríguez e Hijos · Luthiers desde 1905 · Madrid |
| Year | 2002 · Model E Rio Madagascar 2052 |
| Type | Clásica · Crossover |
| Top | Cedar |
| Back & Sides | Madagascar Rosewood · Dalbergia baronii · CITES Appendix II |
| CITES | Appendix II · Built eleven years before the 2013 listing |
| Collection Role | Material provenance instrument |
Label confirmed. The instrument has been professionally inspected and conserved to museum standard. Interventions are documented and kept to the minimum the instrument requires. Its structural and provenance record is maintained privately under museum archival standard.
Tradition & Use
Cedar over rosewood gives warmth and sustain where a cypress blanca gives snap. It is built for the classical repertoire and the slower flamenco forms, where sustain carries the line rather than cutting against it. Manuel Rodríguez e Hijos built for the professional market in Madrid from 1905. This one was built before the restriction and has been preserved through it. That sequence is now part of what the instrument is.
The story of this guitar is in the curriculum.
CITES restrictions and their significance for guitar provenance, tonewoods, and collection documentation are covered in the ANICETO University curriculum, Module 3 · The Wood.
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