This is a yellow label Concierto I from 1972 as the label
states. It suffered from some humidity problems but
luckily only concerning the lacquer. A lot of time
consuming work but the guitar is in a like new condition
now. You can take a look here what has happened during
this process of restauration. SOLD
The multi coloured inlays are typical for the Concierto
series guitars, also on the back here. As the moisture came
under the poly urethane lacquer which was original it
caused some nasty spots so removing the old lacquer
was a must.
New frets and shaving off the fingerboard towards the head
was a must as the angle neck / body wasn't good anymore.
Of course a new topnut and cleaning of the tuners. This
neck / body angle issue can be found on a lot of older
classical guitars, even Jose Ramirez concert guitars!
The head itself was in fact in a good condition.
And no damages on the edges of the back of the head as well.
Even the booklet is still present with this guitar:
Guaranteed and signed by Juan Estruch himself.
The sides were ugly as well and the top collected dirt
in the cracks. These cracks were only in the thick layer
of lacquer so after having removed this layer I was
able to start all over again and colour the guitar with a
water based stain and finish it afterwards.
Good Fustero tuners that belong on a guitar like this.
Removing the lacquer from the top is a simpler process
with the bridge off. It came off already so I figured it to
be the best to provide it with a 12 hole bridge.
Nice materials are used for these higher grade guitars.
Taurus Guitars:
This guitar is not a part of my collection but feel free to
inform around its' price because it it for sale. I will forward
you directly to the owner. The Taurus guitars are well
known but their origin is quite "foggy " so to say. Taurus
was a distributor but possibly built guitars themselves.
They even exported their products internationally and
they resided in Barcelona. One thing is always directly
recognizable and that is the golden Taurus logo inside
on one of the transverse bars directly next to the sound
hole. As several luthiers were responsible for the supply
of guitars and maybe other stringed instruments it is
possible that the "Taurus bar" is there but no additional
label has been sticked.
This guitar came to me for repair and I'm always curious to
find out more around these "distributors" in Spain. The bridge-
bone was already that low that the strings hardly made an angle
over it. Therefore the bridge has been lowered and I've deepened
the sleeve for the bridgebone. The bridge was quite high so that
was no problem at all. As an extra I provided this guitar with
a twelve hole string tie block.
The twelve hole string tie block always works in these
situations so why not add it as a useful "tool".
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This can't be a coincidence: Exactly the same rosette!
On the left a picture taken from a 1965 Manuel Condal guitar.
On the right a picture from this "no label" guitar.
One of the remarkable additions on these guitars is the
multi coloured edge inlay the way they were doing that
at the Juan Estruch company, also situated in Barcelona.
It is one of the oldest guitar making factory and a some
of the builders for Taurus learned their craft there.
When the strings are off it is easier to do some extra
work to a guitar. The lower frets were heavily used
and therefore 3 new frets have been installed and
together with that the fret ends have been filed as
they were protruding from the neck edges.
To narrow the search it is always advisable to compare head
forms. As Ignacio Fleta was the most famous builder from
Barcelona, a lot of luthiers copied his headform. It is proof
at the same time that your Taurus marked guitar has been
built in Barcelona as well as Valencia was another source
for ordering the cheaper student guitars.
Apart from the superior internal construction details such as
individual glue blocks on back an soundboard and the side
reinforcements, these tuners are superior ones, and possibly
from the Fustero company but I have to find out yet.
A beautiful back that reminds me of the Madagascar used
rosewood on a premium Amalio Burguet AB I have in my
collection. This could as well be the case here.
By clicking on this picture you can study the wood and
its' particular grain. No cracks on this guitar but two spots
on the neck that in fact could be cured as it is a concert
worthy instrument. Besides Antonio Picado, others were
building guitars for Taurus such as Antigua Casa Gol,
Manuel Condal, José Grau and José Farré.
Who actually made this guitar will make its' price in the
end. Watch the inlay on the string tie block to narrow
these possibilities! My guess would be Manuel Condal.
As together with the string tie block inlay, the edge inlay
around the soundboard is in the Estruch tradition and
is present on this guitar as well. Antonio Picado has a
workforce of around 20 workers just outside Barcelona.
He is building guitars for Otto Vowinkel among others.
As Manuel Condal is the luthier possibly responsible for
this guitar, I've included a label here. A lot of the guitars
constructed by the names I mentioned here can be found
for sale on the Reverb site. Often there is some extra
information provided around these people in the
description of the instruments. And his rosettes seems
to be immediately recognizable.: We can confirm this
instrument has been built by Manuel Condal.
A respected luthier in his own but most likely not the
luthier of the guitar presented here.
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