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 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. 

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 havean 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. He more recently

uses the Amsterdam flag to add to his rosettes.

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. 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 again as 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 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 

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 Segovia long played that one for

a long period of time before he switched to a Ramirez.