A "Marcos Escano" labelled guitar - 1999 (Flamenco?)

The repaired Marcos Escano guitar from 1999. Though

an unknown luthier to this day, details are convincing

it to be a good instrument and very lightly built. What

could have been expected the guitar gives lots' of 

volume. Scale length 645 mm Width topnut: 50 mm.

And the few cracks in the soundboard have been 

treated to my satisfaction. Price 450 Euro's.

Hardly visible are the cracks here, Even after a 

close inspection. On the left just above the bridge 

you can see some traces of damage when I needed

to remove the bridge. As it was repaired by someone 

else in an earlier stage but done with the wrong glue 

the bridge came loose again. All stable now but the

amateur who did this should be ashamed....

A nicely sculpted head what betrays work of a real

woodworker. Everything is showing a high degree

of workmanship. Ebony fingerboard and newly 

made topnut and bridgebone. Scale is 645 mm.

Width topnut is 50 mm.

The back of the head with the reinforcement 

all the way up to the top of the head.

A nice cypress back with no frills but strange thing is 

that nice inlays are made on the sides, a bit unusual...

Almost undamaged after 25 years of service.

Frets have been redressed and can deliver service

for years to come.

I think the tuners to be from Alhambra as the prefix "A"

can be detected here on the left. You need to know that 

there actually is a prefix there!

And the tuners on the right side of this guitar.

The simple label and maybe this luthier didn't built 

that many guitars. We hope to find out in the future.

Refently we heard about a Marcos Escano who is a 

a quite successful musician in Spain. Most likely 

he gave it a try: building guitars,

The blocks on the right from the label are a 

reinforcement of the two halves of the back. A lot

of extra work as a strip of wood would have done 

the job as well. This must have been done by someone

who is accustomed to wood working.

Taurus Guitars: More info

  

Presented here is a high end Taurus guitar. This is more for

information as this guitar is not part of my collection. It was

offered to me for reparation. The Taurus company was situated

in Barcelona and indeed had a workforce. And some workers

learned their craft at the Juan Estruch company also established

in Barcelona and one of the oldest guitar companies of Spain.

Among the workers in the Taurus workshop we can mention

the later Antigua Casa Gol, Manuel Condal, Jose Farre

Rodriguez and Jose Grau among others. Also Antonio Picado 

was one of them. He now has a workforce of 20 workers just 

outside Barcelona and is responsible for the second line of

guitars for Otto Vowinkel (situated in Amsterdam)

A post at guitarsite suggests that Antonio Picado Berga, a 
guitar maker in Barcelona, worked in the Taurus workshop 
from 1968 to 1982 and that many Ramirez student guitars 
were made by the Taurus workshop during that time.

This guitars has been built a bit in the Ramirez tradition and

though this is a high end model, Taurus also built intermediate 

and possibly even beginner guitars. Refinement and use of

premium materials can prove to which class a guitar belongs.

As with several older Spanish classical guitars, this guitar also 

suffered from a too high action and lowering the saddle was not 

an option as the angle over the bridgebone was already hardly 

there. However, I was lucky as the bridge itself was executed 

quite high so lowering especially the first part of the bridge (not 

the string tie block) together with a twelve hole bridge did the

job. When you are making repairs on older guitars like this, a 

check up on the first frets often shows too much wear. Changing

the first 3 frets did the job and it wasn't necessary to do a whole 

fret job or level all the frets. The inlay of the string tie block

is also pointing towards Manuel Condal as well as the rosette.

Simply a nice shot of this part of the guitar but in fact to show

you the influences Juan Estruch had on the way of guitar building

in Barcelona and surroundings: The multi coloured edge inlay.

Manuel Condal still followed the old master Juan Estruch.

Sometimes almost giving an idea of high quality mahogany,

this guitar has been equipped with an endangered species:

Madagascar rosewood. I could securely compare this with

a high and Amalio Burguet guitar that is claimed to be

executed out of the same material back and sides. It is

now a quite pricey wood though not yet under the CITES

protection. Beautifully straight what makes it even more

stable in the near future.

A lot of luthiers that worked in Barcelona often are 

making a choice for the Ignacio Fleta head. This is

the case as well here and by the way the head is 

veneered (among other details) we might conclude

this guitar to be built by Manuel Condal.

The newly installed frets matching the older fourth fret.

Possibly Fustero tuners which is another mark of a higher

class guitar. Fustero as a company is out of business, They

were widely used, beautiful engraved but mechanically 

spoken not the top.

I've added the "Antigua Casa Gol " label together with

the engraved golden Taurus marking on the transverse

bar on the back of this guitar.