This is a yellow label Concierto I from 1972 as the label
states. It suffered from some humidity problems but
luckily only concerning the lacquer. A lot of time
consuming work but the guitar is in a like new condition
now. You can take a look here what has happened during
this process of restauration. SOLD
The multi coloured inlays are typical for the Concierto
series guitars, also on the back here. As the moisture came
under the poly urethane lacquer which was original it
caused some nasty spots so removing the old lacquer
was a must.
New frets and shaving off the fingerboard towards the head
was a must as the angle neck / body wasn't good anymore.
Of course a new topnut and cleaning of the tuners. This
neck / body angle issue can be found on a lot of older
classical guitars, even Jose Ramirez concert guitars!
The head itself was in fact in a good condition.
And no damages on the edges of the back of the head as well.
Even the booklet is still present with this guitar:
Guaranteed and signed by Juan Estruch himself.
The sides were ugly as well and the top collected dirt
in the cracks. These cracks were only in the thick layer
of lacquer so after having removed this layer I was
able to start all over again and colour the guitar with a
water based stain and finish it afterwards.
Good Fustero tuners that belong on a guitar like this.
Removing the lacquer from the top is a simpler process
with the bridge off. It came off already so I figured it to
be the best to provide it with a 12 hole bridge.
Nice materials are used for these higher grade guitars.
Juan Estruch: Lady guitar (appr. 1920 / 1930)
With a scale of only 615 mm we can call it a "ladies guitar".
These smaller guitars were built by several companies and
can be found with different labels. More about that later.
Having worked on this guitar I presume it to be quite a bit
older, most likely around 1920 / 1930 when this Estruch
label was used for the first time. A lot of workers from the
Salvador Ibanez company started for themselves but keep
building a bit in the Ibanez tradition. Therefore it remains
difficult where exactly these guitars were produced. I can
mention several names here though mostly from Valencia:
Jose Parres, Juan Ponce, Andres Marin and others, not
always workers for the Salvador Ibanez company. I have
3 guitars that in fact are a bit look-a-likes, very simple
in building structure but they all sound surprisingly well.
In fact these guitars are simply built in all aspects as you
can see on the rosette around the soundhole here. No fan
bracing present in these ones, only the so called ladder
bracing. Aș this sounbndboard needed to be sanded and
thus was "ending" thinner, I figured it the best to give it
a 3 piece fan bracing. To bring down the string height
together with shaving off the fingerboard towards the
head, I made a twelve hole bridge as can be seen here.
Some other changes have been added, sometimes for
constructional reasons. For example, the center inlay
wasn't there but when you remove a back, the plantilla
of a guitar changes and besides that it is an opportunity
to built in a neck reset. The upper and lower bout then
are widening a bit so you are in need of some extra
back material or a new back but the wood of this back
is so specially figured I've kept that of course.
Besides sanding the whole guitar and do some regluing
of the several parts, I've tried to make the neck as clean
as possible but several paint traces simply were too deep.
Then it is better to repaint the neck as a whole. The rest
of this guitar has been French polished.
The front of the head has been sanded as well a bit but
polishing it further did the job. Cleaning the tuners was
a next step as was making a new knob. A bit strange on
this guitar are the individual machine heads that are
marked as well. In fact they were a bit sloppy mounted
as you ca see on the uneven holes for the metal rollers
left and right. They still work very smoothly.
Of course new frets and a new topnut as well. The
fingerboard has been stained to a dark brown colour.
I always use Clou powder to make these stains on
a water base and I add a bit of grey to get that
old look these guitars need to be equipped with.
Resoldering the axe holder for the G string was needed
and I was simply surprised by the material of the other
knobs that still are like new though the holes in the
head of this guitar are proving that these tuners were
there from the beginning.
Slightly bowed here and there but being that old
it is better not to try to remodel that as the axe
holders were already vulnerable.
Taurus Guitars:
This guitar is not a part of my collection but feel free to
inform around its' price because it it for sale. I will forward
you directly to the owner. The Taurus guitars are well
known but their origin is quite "foggy " so to say. Taurus
was a distributor but possibly built guitars themselves.
They even exported their products internationally and
they resided in Barcelona. One thing is always directly
recognizable and that is the golden Taurus logo inside
on one of the transverse bars directly next to the sound
hole. As several luthiers were responsible for the supply
of guitars and maybe other stringed instruments it is
possible that the "Taurus bar" is there but no additional
label has been sticked.
This guitar came to me for repair and I'm always curious to
find out more around these "distributors" in Spain. The bridge-
bone was already that low that the strings hardly made an angle
over it. Therefore the bridge has been lowered and I've deepened
the sleeve for the bridgebone. The bridge was quite high so that
was no problem at all. As an extra I provided this guitar with
a twelve hole string tie block.
The twelve hole string tie block always works in these
situations so why not add it as a useful "tool".
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This can't be a coincidence: Exactly the same rosette!
On the left a picture taken from a 1965 Manuel Condal guitar.
On the right a picture from this "no label" guitar.
One of the remarkable additions on these guitars is the
multi coloured edge inlay the way they were doing that
at the Juan Estruch company, also situated in Barcelona.
It is one of the oldest guitar making factory and a some
of the builders for Taurus learned their craft there.
When the strings are off it is easier to do some extra
work to a guitar. The lower frets were heavily used
and therefore 3 new frets have been installed and
together with that the fret ends have been filed as
they were protruding from the neck edges.
To narrow the search it is always advisable to compare head
forms. As Ignacio Fleta was the most famous builder from
Barcelona, a lot of luthiers copied his headform. It is proof
at the same time that your Taurus marked guitar has been
built in Barcelona as well as Valencia was another source
for ordering the cheaper student guitars.
Apart from the superior internal construction details such as
individual glue blocks on back an soundboard and the side
reinforcements, these tuners are superior ones, and possibly
from the Fustero company but I have to find out yet.
A beautiful back that reminds me of the Madagascar used
rosewood on a premium Amalio Burguet AB I have in my
collection. This could as well be the case here.
By clicking on this picture you can study the wood and
its' particular grain. No cracks on this guitar but two spots
on the neck that in fact could be cured as it is a concert
worthy instrument. Besides Antonio Picado, others were
building guitars for Taurus such as Antigua Casa Gol,
Manuel Condal, José Grau and José Farré.
Who actually made this guitar will make its' price in the
end. Watch the inlay on the string tie block to narrow
these possibilities! My guess would be Manuel Condal.
As together with the string tie block inlay, the edge inlay
around the soundboard is in the Estruch tradition and
is present on this guitar as well. Antonio Picado has a
workforce of around 20 workers just outside Barcelona.
He is building guitars for Otto Vowinkel among others.
As Manuel Condal is the luthier possibly responsible for
this guitar, I've included a label here. A lot of the guitars
constructed by the names I mentioned here can be found
for sale on the Reverb site. Often there is some extra
information provided around these people in the
description of the instruments. And his rosettes seems
to be immediately recognizable.: We can confirm this
instrument has been built by Manuel Condal.
A respected luthier in his own but most likely not the
luthier of the guitar presented here.
