Andres Martin de Diego - Concert guitar 1960 (Signed / Dated)

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. Apart from that in the

inside of this guitar a stamp can be found on the upper

bout on the left side. Near the sound hole on the right

the guitar has been signed (by 2 persons?) and dated

1960 even being number 275 within the handbuilt

range we suppose.

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.

Fretwork has been levelled and polished.

                                            

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

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

No, on the right it looks (and feels) better.

Nice inlay work all around this instrument proving that

it is far from an entry level guitar. But that has already

ben confirmed by the rosette itself.

And the Fustero tuners with the typical knob form

from the early sixties.

The Cypress back with only one small crack that already 

has been stabilized. Take a look at the lower right. 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. On later models

the small center point that sticks out, has disappeared.

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. A crack

running from the let wing of the bridge has been

repaired and is stable now. No need to worry about

that as it still was closing. No tensions there!