Daniel Roye Concert guitar 1980

Presented here is a Daniel Roye guitar, built in 1980.

Recently refretted and a neck / body angle correction.

This guitar is in a very good shape with no cracks or

whatsoever. Scale is 650 mm while the topnut is 

54 mm. Daniel Roye continued with building violins

and is quite successful with it. He learned the craft

from Nicolaas van der Waals among others.

Price: 1800 Euro's including a case.

What immediately is remarkable is the way Roye shaped 

the head. In fact the way a violin builder is supposed to

do. I can't find immediate advantages of it. The topnut

has been redressed after the fret job.

On par with the quality of a concert guitar the tuners should be

of pristine quality. And I can confirm that: They are! Clinched

with the axe holders to the base plate and very smoothly

working. The lyre motif is there as has been made popular

by the Spanish Barcelona based Fustero company but

I think them to come from Germany....

The body that has been built up with fine grained spruce

and beautiful figured Brasilian rosewood for back and

sides. Also the purfling has been done in rosewood.

A surprisingly low bridge that hasn't been altered

by someone. The idea must have been that a lighter

bridge let's the top vibrate more freely. Moreover

the bridgebone is closer to the actual soundboard.

A newly made bridgebone adjusted for convenient

playability and stringsavers to get an even better

angle over the bridgebone though it was in fact 

not necessary.

The guitar from the back. Beautiful woods used here!

The back in all its' beauty. It almost looks as if the

back exists out of only one piece of wood. The 

seam is hardly detectable. The reflections are,

sorry for that....

A strange picture for classical guitar players I

suspect. The back of the head has been closed

with a layer of wood.

This picture is showing the recently placed new frets.

A 1980 guitar with a whole life in front of itself! And

with its' comfortable shaped neck it is an easy to play

guitar. As for sound: Really nice low end and a good

balance between the lower and upper registers.

In fact the Amsterdam Guitar Trio plays most of their music 

on Daniel Roye's guitars so the sound can be judged there. 

Search for the Vivaldi: The four Seasons The Amsterdam 

guitar Trio. Soundwise I think the sound on this video is bit 

thin when I compare it with my guitar. But the idea in how 

a guitar should sound is changing over time. Also in the 

recording world as the digital era was just starting in 1980.

In every detail it is becoming clear that the luthier

did his best to produce a beautiful instrument. I will

try to contact him and maybe I will get some more

information around several details.

Andres Martin de Diego - Concert guitar 1960

You will not meet them frequently but Andres Martin

made a lot of stringed instruments in his life. He is 

therefore mentioned in the Jose Romanillos dictionary

as someone who learned his craft with Julio Bustamante

and Marcelo Barbero. He was influenced by Santos

Hernandez and Domingo Simplicio. He taught his

brother in law, Javier Rojo Solar. His workshops

were at the Rollo 3 and at Calle Divino Pastor 22

in Madrid. He died in 1977. Scale of this guitar is

660 mm. Width of the topnut is 53 mm.

It must have been a lot of work to create a rosette like this...

The scratch plate could point towards a flamenco model as

does the cypres sides and back but classical Spanish music suits

this guitar as well. Profound basses and a bit of the old school

"wooden"  tone. A good example of this sound can be found

on YouTube where Nikos Tsiachris plays a 1975 classical

guitar from his hand. The guitars' own frequency lies

on a G#, about 104 Herz.

Here the signed label can be admired, stating that he already

was working at the Divina Pastor 22 location in Madrid.

To our believe the year written at the lower right on

this label mentions the year 1960.

His graceful and immediately recognizable head, but also

showed here is the condition of the lower frets. Most of the

time an indication in what sort of condition the fretwork

is. He also used the typical Fustero tuners from that time.

Probably I will French polish the neck as it doesn't feel

that comfortable at the moment. Or leave it the way it is?

Nice inlay work all around this instrument proving that

it is far from an entry level guitar.

And the Fustero tuners with the typical knob form

in the early sixties.

The Cyprus back with only one small crack that already 

has been stabilized. Do not expect such imperfections to 

have a lot of influence on the sound.

And the front ands back of the head, reasonably 

free from damages. A new topnut was necessary.

This picture has been added as I used the string 

savers to get an even better angle over the bridge-

bone but they were in fact not necessary.