A Before coming to the US in the early 1960s, Miguel Company was chief luthier for the Cuban National Folk Orchestra. He made not only guitars but other traditional stringed instruments and did repairs and restorations as well. By the time he was making 12-string guitars in his little shop in Coral Gables, Florida, just south of Miami, he was probably in his late 70s or early 80s. It's doubtful he made more than 100 or so 12-strings. James Durst writes about the highest-numbered one I know of in his story "Searching for #77," which appears in Bruce Pollock's book Working Musicians. But 12-strings were not just an afterthought for Miguel—along with the year and the number of each guitar, the professionally printed labels he placed in every one of his guitars included the "Spanglish" inscription "Specialized on twelve strings." As a musician in Miami in the '60s, I saw more than a few of them—Nigel Pickering of Spanky and Our Gang was another south Florida musician who played one. In south Florida, with its large Cuban and Cuban-American population, there is high demand for anything made by a Cuban master guitar builder, and about ten years ago a Cuban-American guitar appraiser examined my 1966 Miguel (#54) and estimated its value at $8,000—$10,000.
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