Finally I've came across an Otto Vowinkel, the Dutch luthier
from Amsterdam. A lot of professional guitar players are
choosing for his instruments. Therefore the price is most of
the time out of reach for most people of the guitar playing
community. This guitar is from the year 1994. Vowinkel
was true to the old school of guitar building but along the
line he must have added several ideas of his own.
Scale length: 650 mm. Width topnut: 54 mm.
A traditional 5 fan bracing of the top with two closing ribs
but the transverse bar just beneath the sound hole has been
provided with two "tunnels" in a sense that left and right
from the middle that bar hasn't been glued to the soundboard
in order to have an even more freely vibrating top.
NOT FOR SALE.
Back in the nineties his work was already outstanding and
proof of that can be listened to on a video where Tarik Harib
plays a 1996 Otto Vowinkel concert guitar for Grandguitar-
salon. In those days Otto Vowinkel used the headform later
introduced for the second line of instruments supervised
by him but made in Spain by the Picado company.
Most likely Vowinkel is concentrating on a good sounding
instrument and a bit less on the marquetry. So not an
elaborate roset here. Just plain simple. He more recently
uses the Amsterdam flag to add to his rosettes.
The hand signed and dated label. Plain as are a lot of the
executions on this guitar. Focused on sound and with result!
The bridge that has the protecting bone edges on the string
tie block. An idea more luthiers should apply. On the left
you can see some traces of a spot where the bare wood
came through when leveling the two sides of a crack.
It was still closing and therefore only working in some
glue so not yet some cleats to strengthen the sides.
I will see how things are holding as I'm planning
to keep this one. Most of the time one of the braces
are crossing the crack so enough support!
The back that has been made out of Indian rosewood as
are the sides. Everything has been French polished as
it in fact belongs to a top instrument. The back was
damaged up to the bare wood and trying to cure things
will result in annoying color differences. Therefore
the whole back has been French polished again
Not visible on this picture but some wear in the layers
of the French polish up to the bare wood urged me to do
the back all over again. Most of the time advantage of the
French polish technique is that you can treat only the spot.
As the layer done in 1994 has yellowed over time, it
was a must that I needed to do the whole back again
in order to avoid colour differences.
Also the back of the head is still OK but the pointed
headform was a bit damaged. With only a small amount
of hardwax it can be cured close to the original color.
Great machine heads but I do not know the manufacturer.
Possibly Schaller but I will come up with the brand when
I'm introducing this picture to the Luthier club on FB.
To my opinion they are Gotoh tuners but someone also
was pointing on the Der Jung tuners which are very
competitive priced. Though they are on this guitar, I
think to conclude that they are from Gotoh, being
a very reliable company. Thanks for fellow guitar
players that helped me in this matter.
As has been stated already the pointed headform in those
times used for his concert (and hand signed instruments)
The frets have been redressed as there was enough material
left over. It was obvious this guitar has been played a lot.
It all starts with the use of good materials but one cannot
deny that a special talent is needed to make a guitar outstanding.
A bit of an Islamic idea that was the inspiration
for this headform? I made a new nut for this guitar
as someone must have ruined the original one.
When having the strings that long on a guitar, even the bone
in the bridge colors in an ugly way. So also here a tight fitting
new bone was made as a start for a good set up. This guitar
has lots' of volume but never sounds harsh and colors nicely
once striked at various places. The sustain is remarkable and
seems to make playing more easily. This instrument has been
provided with a 655 mm scale. The nut dimension is 53 mm.
The guitars' own frequency lies around the low G (about 98
Herz) Some guitar players think that to be of importance.
It sure does something on the whole frequency spectrum.
This guitar surprised me a lot as I haven't encountered a
guitar in this quality up till now. I heard and played a Fleta
on an auction in Vichy that as outstanding but at a price of
about 18.000 Euro's hammer price, hmm. Then later a
Hermann Hauser II showed to me was a guitar to remember
as well. Not strange Andres Segovia played that one for
a long period of time before he switched to a Ramirez.
