A bit odd to start with a label as this is not a luthiers'
label to our believe but most likely a guitar and other
musical accessoires supplier who had these instruments
built elsewhere. Union Musicales Espanola had their
shops in different Spanish cities. Price: € 1250,-
Not a well known headstock for me but some details might
point to a Barcelona based luthier: The Juan Estruch company.
Recently I stumbled onto a 1970 guitar with the same headstock.
About the age of this guitar one can conclude that the later
ugly polyurethane finish is not present on the soundboard
but is there on the neck, sides and back.
In the lower left there is some damage on the back and
after a good night sleep I decided to make some inserts
for the cracks there. As it has to be levelled afterwards
the back as a whole will be refinished.
The yellow, red and green bindings are typical for Estruch
so possibly another Juan Estruch model. Contact with the
Estruch company indeed learnt that we are dealing with
a genuine Juan Estruch, one of the oldest guitar companies
in Spain though there are no "Estruch" named luthiers at
work anymore in the factory nowadays. Another luthier
most likely bought the name and went on. On the other
hand, several luthiers learnt their craft at the Estruch
workforce among them Jose Grau, Jose Farre, Manuel
Condal and Antonio Picado. Also the later Antigua Casa
Gol is one of them. Closely related to the Estruch
company is the Taurus Workforce. So a lot of different
luthiers could have been responsible for the building
of this guitar. Scale: 645 mm.
This headform resembles the much copied Ignacio Fleta
head but not exactly. That might give more direction towards
the luthier who constructed this guitar. But on the other hand
several details were more than often copied especially by the
luthiers from Barcelona who worked for Estruch. The multi
coloured bindings, Estruch is known for. Inlay in the bridge
and even rosettes often were made by independent factories
who supplied several luthiers in their country.
Nice clean rollers and refreshed frets. Alass this guitar
has to be refretted as the neck is showing a serious backbow
which I have never found on a classical guitar until now!
And the only way to make a proper correction is to treat
the fingerboard by shaving it. In a most worst case the
fingerboard could have been replaced after having lined
out the neck. Most of the time not necessary.
A nice rosette and a spruce soundboard that is "crack" free.
And a matching inlay in the string tie block.
Fustero tuners that are in good condition. The axe holders
are clinched onto the base plate which is proof of superior
quality. Tuners like these alone will fetch more than 200
Euro's for one complete set.
Some spots on the outer neckblock but nothing fundamental.
In fact the case might give an idea about the age of this
guitar. Anyway a lot to be investigated still but a start
has been made by judging its' sound: Someone hightened
the bridgebone by putting some paper under the bridge
bone. A disaster for a good sound. Moreover the bridge-
bone was broken but that has been solved already.
I don't know the brand of strings but to my opinion
this guitar will sound even better with Savarez Corum.
The volume it can provide is already there now!
Here the label on the inside of the case is presented. I
recently came across exactly the same case around a
guitar (and belonging to that one) from the early sixties
of the past age. Also cases that belong to an instrument
can give a confirmation of the age of an instrument.
Another typical move on the Concerto series of Estruch
was the use of an ebony veneer layer on the outer heel.
And the multi coloured bindings of course. A short
E-mail contact between the Estruch company and me
confirmed my thoughts about the origin: Juan Estruch.
Here the facade of the UME shop in Girona is presented.
We were curious to learn what they could tell about a part of
the history of this company. The guy in charge wasn't very
helpful. "All those UME labelled guitars of the past are
crap" was all he stated. I showed him some pictures of the
this high end Estruch guitar but he wasn't convinced at all.
That made me think that you always have to understand
who is the person in front of you. He acted completely
wrong and what is more, quite unfriendly. A few days
before visiting Girona we visited the workshop of Antonio
Picado and that meeting was quite the opposite!
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 kept
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 soundboard 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. Price: 350,-
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.
