Vreemd natuurlijk dat er een typenummer vermeld staat
waarachter dan direct weer een vraagteken geplaatst wordt.
Dat heeft alles te maken met het label verderop en de ty-
pische kenmerken aan deze gitaar in vergelijking tot de
modellen die momenteel her en der aangeboden worden.
Uitleg volgt nog. Maar in zeer goede conditie en eigenlijk
niet gebruikt laat dit model zich moeiteloos vergelijken
met het duurste model uit de serie van Santos Martinez.
VERKOCHT
Bijzonder zijn natuurlijk de houten bindings op deze duurdere
modellen maar in tegenstelling tot het huidige ES-09S model
zijn zij- en achterkant wel degelijk uit massief hout gemaakt.
In dit geval is Indiaas palissander gebruikt voor de klankkast.
Een nette rozet en prima fretwerk mag misschien in
deze categorie verwacht worden maar dat is zeker niet
altijd het geval. De bindings langs de hals zorgen ervoor
dat je nooit last zult krijgen van uitstekende fret-
einden. Een vaak in de winter voorkomend euvel.
Een andere bijzondere feature is de twaalfgaats kam,
eveneens niet aanwezig op het reeds genoemde model.
Voordelen? Veel snellere en betrouwbaardere montage
van de snaren. De snaren maken daarnaast een betere
hoek over het kambeentje omdat ze niet omhoog
getrokken worden door de lus in het oude systeem.
Het label vermeldt ook geen model nummer maar de
bouwkenmerken en gebruikte materialen wijzen duidelijk
op een instrument uit het hogere segment. Neem alleen
maar eens de prima geschaafde Spaanse hiel in deze gitaar.
En ook de vorm van de kop heeft een verandering
ondergaan. Verder een netjes uitgesneden topkam.
Altijd even de 2e snaar weghalen om het ontbreken
van ook maar enige fretwear te kunnen laten zien.
Prima mechanieken maar dat heb ik al eerder mogen ervaren
met mechanieken uit China. Met name de zogenaamde Bouchet-
mechanieken werken erg nauwkeurig en draaien licht.
Ze gaan er prat op geen kunststof maar houten bindingen
aan te brengen op hun instrumenten en het dient gezegd:
Een waardevolle en mooie toevoeging in de afwerking.
De electronica ditmaal ook niet van Fishman maar van
het merk Shadow. Vergis je niet: Deze "Classic" set kost
los al over de 200 Euro! De microfoon moet ik nog
aan de praat krijgen maar eigenlijk werkt het under
saddle pick up al zeer naar behoren.
Mooi getekende achterkant en volgens mij is hiervoor
geen ovangkol gebruikt maar Indiaas palissander,
bovendien massief van uitvoering in tegenstelling
tot de zij- en achterkanten van het model ES-09S.
Ook de achterkant van de kop, vaak gevoelig voor schades
ziet er onberispelijk uit. Een erg netjes gebouwd instrument
dat ook puur akoestisch zijn mannetje staat.
Audex Labelled Guitar (Valencia)
This Valencian made guitar before and after the restoring
process. I will explain what had to be done and though these
student guitars were overlooked in the near past there seems
to be more interest in them nowadays. However the amount
of work (and costs) it requires in fact is not rewarding if
you need to have it done by a luthier. The final sound
always remains a surprise. This example is really above
expectations. Warm, colorful and a great balance though
it misses the brilliance and volume of a good concert
instrument. But for small venues? Not bad at all!
Presented here is an early sixties intermediate model from
the Audex shop. They didn't produce guitars themselves
but had them made elsewhere in Valencia. I have to find
out where. The soundboard has a 5 fan bracing and the
rosette has been executed more luxury. But even in those
days (early sixties) the real concert guitars were already
provided with a wider neck. Therefore this guitar must
be considered as a nice intermediate student instrument.
Width at the topnut is 50 mm and the scale is 650 mm.
The guitar is provided with a nice back but strange detail
was that there is no center strip on the inside of the back.
They glued some broad but flat pieces of wood over the
seam of the two back halves. I filled the hardly detectable
seam with some wood glue to strengthen parts.
Nothing special has been done to the back furthermore but
it is obvious that the polishing compound did his work.
The own frequency of the soundbox lies on a B (which
means around 123 Hz.)
As the lacquer used in those times crystallizes over time,
I figured it would be better to have all the lacquer removed
on the string tie block as the tension of the strings are causing
unwanted traces. So the bridge will be lacquered afterwards.
Most entry level Valencian guitars had a black painted bridge.
This one is made out of rosewood.
What often happened was the kind of sloppy way they
mounted the heel. No big deal as the sides fall into the gap
made for a sturdy fit but in fact it simply shouldn't be there.
The Valencia way of constructing the heel partly with a
softer wood such as spruce hasn't been done here. On
the higher grade models the whole outer heel was
executed out of hard wood.
The same thing on the other side. I will try to
place and glue a small splinter of wood in the gap.
The tuners need to be cleaned and while doing so
I will correct the sleeves for the strings fit a bit. The
topnut is way too high and the plastic it has been made
out of, has been detoriated. A new topnut is a must
here. The headform is exactly the same on the Roca
guitars I found on the internet. The site of jedistar is
a very useful tool regarding information around the
various luthiers.
A remark can made made around the metal rollers used
here on the tuners as that is pointing towards a somewhat
earlier model, probably made around 1960.
Topnut and frets are gone. I removed the copper
(too square!) frets and thus I'm able to correct the
neck / body angle though it wasn't that bad. Small
traces of nail use in the lowest positions can be
removed now as well. On the right the guitar
neck as it is now.
The Audex label was even provided with a stamp:
"Made in Spain". But furthermore no type number has
been mentioned. But seeing the elaborate rosette it
falls into a higher category.
The tuners do not look that spectacular but they are
clinched to the base plate and moreover they work securely
with no play on them even after such a long time.
Once cleaned they already look much better!
The topnut didn't even fit well and among other
irregularities, this must have been the reason the
Japanese factories took over this business.
An extra half 19th fret will be mounted for the demanding
pieces and I will clean the rosette but I will leave the sound-
board the way it is. The old lady may show some traces...
Oiling the fingerboard is a must of course, in fact before
the new frets are mounted. The lacquer on these sixties
Spanish guitar solves a bit in pure alcohol which in
fact gives a much better appearance. A polishing process
afterwards is a must. I use "Nicko" very fine polishing
liquid for the last process.
I found this guitar on Jedistar, a great site for finding
information around guitar factories and luthiers in
electric as well as the acoustic field. They are showing
a "Roca" labelled guitar with exactly the same rosette
on the guitar here above.
Presented here is the "Roca" labelled guitar with exactly
the same rosette and not only that, the bridge and the
headform also appear to be identical. So this problem
is solved around the origin of the Audex labelled guitar.
As for the age, this label was used by the Roca plant
between 1959 - 1964. That also explains the use of
metal rollers for the tuners used on the Audi guitar.
The Roca labelled guitar is presented here. On the site of
Jedistar a high end Roca guitar is presented as well, above the
guitar that is showed here. They made guitars "for everyone".
That was their philosophy. Some more information....
José Roca Navarro started his business ROCA
from the remains of Marinnieta. Marinnieta used
to be the business of María Dolores Marín Soucase
(granddaughter of the great guitar builder Andrés
Marín). José Roca was married to Dolores from
1945 till 1957.
When José took up the guitar production in 1959
the market for guitars was picking up to skyrocket
in the 60’s. José quickly expanded the production
with electrical guitars and amplifiers. Besides that he
started to adapt the guitar materials and production
methods to lower his production costs to achieve
lower selling prices. It looks like ROCA is one of
the factors for the race to the bottom of Valencian
guitar productions. In his interview, José states
that everyone should be in reach of his guitars.
The range of his instruments was big (everyone
could find a guitar of his choice) it included bandurrias,
laúds and concert type of guitars as well. The annual
volume boosted from 3.600 pcs in 1959 till 25.000 in
1965, with the main destination Valencia and Spain.
Production locations were in Turís and Xirivella.
Valencia-city housed the shop, some despatch and
the office. Wether José did business with Mijubal
in Turís is not known.
With many thanks to Ton Bogaard who already
did a lot of investigations and is always willing
to help. Just visit: guitarrasvalencia.wordpress.
And Inge and Jan of course who also supplied
some extra information. Inge cherished this guitar
but growing older she is not able to play the guitar
anymore. I've showed them the restoration results!
Some lacquer work, adjusting some sloppy wood-
work, cleaning the tuners and last but not least new
frets instead of the too square and roughly filed
original copper fretwork. As the fingerboard wood
was not that dense I had to glue in these new frets.
And just recently I stumbled onto another brand that
in fact is closely related to the Jose Roca brand: The
Francisco Bros (and later only "Bros") labelled guitars
learned their craft in the factory of Jose Roca and
Maria Dolores Marin.
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