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What you guys make of this? I bought it on ebay for 570AU that about 387US or 278EU. Its a guitar supposedly built in the 60's by Horst Lederer, a german luthier who the seller beleives studied directly under some famous german luthier of the time. It plays and feels like a luthier instrument and not factory.
It was sold as a flamenco negra but i beleive it is a classical. Its sound is usable for flamenco though, as it doesnt have really heavy resonant bass. It plays really evenly up the neck and the bass and treble are very well balanced. I do not regret buying it for a second. The seller wrote that the guy he bought it from swore it was solid brazilian rosewood and solid spruce top. I installed a mic in it as i bought it as a gig guitar, and it is indeed solid wood (i drilled into it to put in a jack).
Im no expert on identifing woods though so i cant say if it is brazilian rosewood or not...maybe someone here can tell me? Im not sure how they dated it to the sixties because there is no date, maybe the 'made in G.D.R' is how they dated it?
It has had many cracks repaired but is solid and playes well, the sound is quite nice as the wood appears to be very well aged. The top has unusual looking dark marks all over it, im not sure what they are, does anyone know or have you seen similar markings on spruce like this? Theres not much info around on Horst Lederer, anyone heard of him?
thanks in advance for any info, dom
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RE: check out my ebay bargain! Horst... (in reply to Guest)
To me it looks like east indian rosewood. But thats not bad either.
How is it build. East German (DDR) instruments were often a bit on the heavy side. But the tradition in Marktneukirchen ia very old and some very fine Violins were made there some 150 years ago during the big violin boom when symphony orchestras grew very big.
RE: check out my ebay bargain! Horst... (in reply to Guest)
Doing a short Google search, I found that there is still a luthier in Marktneukirchen called Horst Peter Lederer. Maybe you could get into contact with him.
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Joined: Aug. 9 2006
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RE: check out my ebay bargain! Horst... (in reply to Guest)
Dont know anything about this guitar and the luthier but in this wikipedia article, his name is mentioned together with herman hauser , Hopf, etc. as the most famous german builders.
RE: check out my ebay bargain! Horst... (in reply to Arash)
well that just made me feel even better about the guitar thanks Arash, i hope he is as good as those other makers. The name doesnt matter though really, its how it plays and sounds that counts i guess.
quote:
Have you tried looking inside with a mirror?
good idea i dont have a mirror but i can stick my phone in there and take photos.
quote:
But the tradition in Marktneukirchen ia very old and some very fine
well this just keeps getting better and better, thank anders it is on the heavy side, but i guess that good in one way because if it was a lighter build i dont think it would have survived all the cracks it has sustained.
heres a short artcle on soundhole micing where the miniflex is mentioned and recomeneded by an american flamenco guitarist, Roberto Castellon Jr.
"Actually a mic inside the guitar can sound fantastic as long as you EQ out the mids that build up inside the guitar body. Viejin, Ramon Jimenez and Jesus de Rosario all have used a lavalier inside the guitar (Sennheiser MKE 40 or ME140) mids around 500hz and 2khz usually need to be attenuated heavily. A high pass filter is usally necessary as well, but the sound can be very loud in close proximity to monitors. One of my guitar students was formerly FOH engineer touring with Antonio Canales and Sara Baras, so this is coming from real life practical situations. He would use the internal mic for monitors and also a KM184 blended with the internal mic in FOH to get a natural guitar sound with enough detail to cut through palmas and footwork etc.... I have found the internal mic with clever surgical EQ can work great alone and provide enough gain before feedback to play with even heavy handed drummers. Internal mics can work, but it takes some skill as an engineer. I have used the MiniFlex mics and they work well for this application without damaging the guitar. Roberto Castellon Jr. used to rave about the MiniFlex mics. On a cheap mackie mixer turn the mid knob down all of the way (2khz) and engage the low cut (75hz) add some reverb and you should get a very detailed and useable sound.
thanks for the help guys, im feeling good about my modest investment
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thanks Arash, i hope he is as good as those other makers. The name doesnt matter though really, its how it plays and sounds that counts i guess. 
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