Paulino Bernabe was born in 1960 in Madrid and grew up watching his father making guitars. His father (also named Paulino Bernabe) had started as an apprentice in the Ramirez Workshop in 1954 and established his own workshop in 1969.  At the age of 17 years old he started his career of guitar-making as his father's apprentice. They worked together for 30 years, and though his Paulino Bernabe Senior has now died, Paulino Bernabe Junior continues to make classical guitars in his family's traditional way.