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I recently found this guitar which I picked up very cheap. It plays really well and sounds great. The thing is it needs a great deal of repair. Its got some cracks and needs refinishing and Im wondering how much to spend on her. The biggest problem is she has lost her label and I haven't got a dental mirror to look under the top for a makers stamp.... so a prize of a second hand set of strings will be awarded to anyone who can help me identify this instrument.
First clue is the rossette. It doesnt look like a stock design and Im pretty sure its hand inlayed. You can see the individual blocks that make the 6 pointed figure and it looks like a custom job. Anyone seen this before?
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RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to Pimientito)
And here is the interior. It doesn't have that slipper shape and I'm pretty sure from the tone and construction that this isn't a Granada instrument now....although I will happily be proved wrong :)
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RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to Pimientito)
Finally the spruce top...as I say its been heavily used and badly repaired. Parts of the guitar look like they have been touched up with a pot of varnish. I want to get those golpe plates off, repair the cracks, sand down the neck, re laquer the whole instrument and set it up. It does sound and play well So I would consider doing that if it was a worthwhile instrument.
Anyone who knows what this is or has similar looking headstock or rosette photos, I would love to hear from you.
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Posts: 1531
Joined: Nov. 7 2008
From: New York City/San Francisco
RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to Pimientito)
Nice find. The Rosette speaks of consummate craftsmanship, regardless of your ability to affiliate the guitar with a famous name.
The feel of the headstock (although in your find is not as sharp, but curved rather) and of the rosette (but not identical) immediately brought to mind, Marcelino Lopez.
I remember one of his guitars well, because I was considering it the first time a visited GSI in LA; I held it in my hands at length and studied it very carefully. Its sound was beautifully hollow, purely resonant of aged wood. Here are a few. However, it could very well be a copy of a Lopez or Santos, in the same fashion Vazquez Rubio or Kenny Hill replicated the “Reyes” model. The Rosette is nearly identical to the Spanish Master’s design and the headstock retraces nearly all elements of the complex Reyes.
Note: According to Lopez himself, he was asked by Hernandez in 1971 to build a guitar for him, who was very pleased with it and ordered more and more. After some time Hernandez asked Lopez to build an exact copy of his own guitar (the original Hernandez y Aguado guitar) which is what he did after quite some time of examining this guitar. Hernandez was extremely pleased with it. From 1971 until Hernandez died, Lopez built 30 guitars for him.
RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to gj Michelob)
Thanks for the input gj. The soundhole does remind me of Lopez on the website (posted below)
I stuck my hand inside to get an idea of the bracing. There is a double brace under the finger board. The first just under the rosette which you can see in the photo and the second a couple of inches behind it. The body has a 5 strut fan bracing under the top. There is a small crack under the transparent golpeador and the wood under the white golpeador appears (by feel) to be intact....certainly no holes. The guitar was obviously dropped at some point and the right side portion has a couple of ugly cracks badly repaired. There is a hairline crack on the left body portion that appears stable. I agree that regardless of the maker this is a good guitar but I think I would need to spend at least 500 euros getting it back to her her former splendour. (300 for repairs and another couple of hundred for finishing)
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RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to Pimientito)
Ok...I think I know what it is now. The polyeurethane laquer on the body dates the guitar to the 70's so its around 35 years old. I think its Valencian....maybe an old Sanchis primera??
RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to Pimientito)
Not sure why but my gut is telling me Valencia..something about the rosette. There is almost "too much" going on, not typical of Andalusian makers' rosettes IMO. Also the shape of the foot suggests that it might be a dovetail joint (as in separate neck and body construction)
RE: Help me identify this blanca please (in reply to beno)
The top appears to be cedar. Inexpensive machines. The dovetail joined neck to body isn't common in guitars produced in Spain. Perhaps a 1970's vintage Estudio model from a Valencia factory.
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