The Valencia guitar brand was created in Melbourne, Australia in 1972. Due to the sub-standard quality of beginners nylon-string guitars available at the time, Valencia guitars was established to provide student guitarists with exceptional quality and value for money guitars, designed for excellent playability and made to the highest possible manufacturing standards.
Valencia guitars were originally sourced from a number of factories in South Korea. Before long news of these exceptional guitars spread around Australia and in the space of a few short years became the biggest selling guitar in the country.
In 1982 production of Valencia guitars was moved to the largest and best guitar manufacturing plant in the world at that time. This South Korean company manufactured Valencia exclusively for the next 7 years allowing Valencia to grow from being solely a beginner’s guitar into a guitar range covering beginner to intermediate players. Also during this time we expanded the product range to include acoustic, electric and bass guitars under the Valencia brand name.
By 1989, the cost of manufacturing quality beginner to intermediate guitars in South Korea became so prohibitive that Valencia production was moved to two separate manufacturing facilities in Taiwan. At the time of this move a decision was made to take Valencia back to its roots and return solely to producing nylon-string classical guitars.
In late 1997, exhaustive research and testing found the manufacturing quality of guitars from some Chinese factories had improved significantly to the point of meeting Valencia’s stringent quality standards. It was determined at this time to move the production of Valencia to its third country of manufacture: China.
By late 1998 production capacity in the factories manufacturing Valencia had grown to the point where it was decided to begin world-wide distribution. As a result, Valencia Guitars rapidly became available in over 70 countries around the world and are distributed by many of the largest wholesalers in their respective markets.
In August 2015 we commenced production of new Valencia models in our own, purpose built guitar manufacturing plant in Surabaya, Indonesia. This site was selected because of its proximity to ample supplies of tonewoods and because of the stable, temperate climate which is so ideal for manufacturing quality guitars.
Valencia is now the No. 1 selling guitar brand in many countries and, arguably, the world. Thousands of music stores around the world stock Valencia as their main classical guitar line. These guitar experts do this because Valencia guitars represent the very best value for money on the market! It’s for this reason alone that millions of guitarists around the world have started their musical journeys on a Valencia guitar.