Melchor Rodriguez guitar (Estudio)

A guitar that surprised me a lot sound wise. It is in fact 

a bit of a Jose Ramirez 1A concert guitar clone: The

soundboard has been equipped with a 7 fan bracing

and the small individual hardwood glue blocks simply

do resemble the Ramirez construction a lot. The great

concert guitar player and composer Jose Luis Merlin

also plays a Melchor Rodriguez "Merlin". model and 

the two even became friends. Melchor Rodriguez has 

retired now though the two still have regular contact.

 Being a quality instrument the addition "Estudio" on the

label surprised me as this guitar can compete with other

high level instruments. 

Therefore I also made this picture where you can observe 

the beautiful rounded inner heel. Also the way it has been 

done in the Jose Ramirez clase 1A guitars

The body has its' traces of normal use but being almost 

50 years old that is understandable.

The back however is still in a remarkable shape although I 

might give it an extra layer of varnish to make it like new.

As with a lot of other Spanish makers the luthiers sometimes 

stick to the use of the same model name or number while

changing several things regarding the components. Here the

gold coloured tuners can be seen while on other Estudio

models they appear to be silver coloured. I've seen about

the same tuners on the Melchor Rodriguez Grand Concerto

guitars, a bit surprising as the axe holders were also bowed 

out of the base plate on those tuners. 

Good fretwork and a very nicely executed rosette,

And a bridge where the string tie block has been

provided with harder edges to prevent damages.