Melchor Rodriguez guitar (Estudio)

  

A guitar that surprised me a lot sound wise. It is in fact 

a bit of a Jose Ramirez 1A concert guitar clone: The

soundboard has been equipped with a 7 fan bracing

and the small individual hardwood glue blocks simply

do resemble the Ramirez construction a lot. The great

concert guitar player and composer Jose Luis Merlin

also plays a Melchor Rodriguez "Merlin" model and 

the two even became friends. Melchor Rodriguez has 

retired now though the two still have regular contact.

 Being a quality instrument, the addition "Estudio" on the

label surprised me as this guitar can compete with other

high level instruments. 

Therefore I also made this picture where you can observe 

the beautiful rounded inner heel. Also the way it has been 

done in the Jose Ramirez clase 1A guitars. In fact every

detail of the inner work shows a high standard!

The body has its' traces of normal use but being almost 

50 years old that is understandable. The sides have been

strengthened with extra braces the way Jose Ramirez

did in his 1A models as well. The damage on the lower

bout on the right in fact was only lacquer loss but the

former owner kept on using the guitar without protecting

the bare wood. As a result that became dirty. I cleaned

that spot and colored it matching with the rest of the

soundboard. I used a water based stain for it: CLOU

You can get it in all sorts of colors in powder.

The back is still in a remarkable shape although I might

give it an extra layer of varnish to make it like new.

A much fresher look and it gives more cosmetical value to

this guitar. Rosewood can be lacquered and polished quite 

easily. The problem is there most of the time when you are

varnishing the bare wood as it contains often oil residues 

that are slowing down the hardening of the lacquer.

As with a lot of other Spanish makers the luthiers sometimes 

stick to the use of the same model name or number while

changing several things regarding the components. Here the

gold coloured tuners can be seen while on other Estudio

models they appear to be silver coloured. I've seen about

the same tuners on the Melchor Rodriguez Grand Concerto

guitars, a bit surprising as the axe holders were also bowed 

out of the base plate on those tuners. Another Madrid based

luthier, Vicente Perez Camacho is using exactly the same

tuners on a guitar I have in my collection.

Good fretwork and a very nicely executed rosette,

And a bridge where the string tie block has been

provided with harder edges to prevent damages.