Guillermo Lluquet (Ferrer) Gitaar (plm. 1970)

A nice example of the Guitarras Lluquet guitar company

from the period they were in charge themselves in producing

their own instruments. In former times they sold instruments 

made by the Vicente Tatay company. This instrument has

been produced  in Turis, which factory was closed in 1980.

VERKOCHT. (SOLD)

As was common in Valencia and surroundings, often no 

extra bracings, just transverse bars that probably gives the

Valencia style of building their own, unique sound.

A bit woody, but lively at the same time with warm

bass ends and sweet highs.

Not a simple entry level rosette but a bit more luxury.

The extra fret fort the high strings also indicates it to

be ment for advanced players.

On the other hand still the copper frets and a lacquered

fingerboard, even over the leveled and "scratched" frets.

I removed the lacquer and polished the frets.

One of the most common headstock forms Valencian 

luthiers supplied their instruments with.

I think this guitar has hardly been played in the past.

No damages, no fret wear and no damages on the back 

of the head that often occurs when people are putting

their guitar against a wall.

And logically no scratches on the back as well ( though 

most of the rollers from the tuners were broke.) Some rollers 

from the tuners have been replaced. Luckily I owe a lot

of spares in that field. The broken rollers are caused by the 

metal core that expands a bit more than the surrounding

bobbin made out of a sort of plastic . Plastic rollers became

the standard later in the Valencian guitar history.

This was the "Turis" label used from 1967 until 1980.

I always call the Valencia labels the "Orange" labels

as in former times oranges seemed to be packed in labels

like these! And they are present in the lower left corner.

As they were producing a lot of guitars, care (and time) 

for a proper nut filing simply wasn't there which resulted 

in  a too high string action already in the 1st position.

I've corrected this of course to enhance playability.

Otto Vowinkel Concert guitar 1994

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 of them.  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. 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.

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.

The hand signed and dated label. Plain as is 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.

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.

Not visible on this picture but some wear in the layers

of the French polish but that will be cured in the near 

future. Advantage is that even spots can be treated

Also the back of the head is still OK again as the pointed

headform was a bit damaged. With only a small amount

of hardware it can be cured near 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 tis guitar I

think to conclude that they are from Gotoh, being

a very reliable company.

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 it 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 one made as a start for a good set up. This guitar

has lots' of volume but never sounds harsh and colors

nicely once stroked at various places. The sustain is

remarkable and seems to make playing more easily. This

instrument has been provided with a 650 mm scale.

The nut dimension is 53 mm. The guitars' own

frequency lies around the low G (about 98 Herz)