French, Post Romantic, +/- 1920

Before I tell you more about this little instrument I wrote a short introduction into the history of guitars.

The Baroque period: 1600 - 1750, small instruments with most of the time 5 courses. A lot of luthers did build them, even Stradivarius I never restored or repaired one until now. I any body has an old instrument like that,m I would be glad to make it playable again. Around 1779 the first six string instrument was build by Gaetone Vinaccia Napels although in Spain they will say it was build by some anonymous in 1750, and in France they will say it was Francois Lupot from Orleans in 1973 The early Romantic period: small instruments with six strings: 1815 - 1910 Famous luthers like Fabricatore, Panormo, Lacote and many others did build them.

I do not yet have an experience with an instrument like that, but this guitar 244 comes close. Parlor guitar started in more or less the same period. The body became a bit bigger, with more difference between the lower bout and the upper bout. You will find them on my side. In between we got the Lire-Guitar 1775 - 1825. Next month I will start with the restoration of one. Than Torres (Antonio de Torres Jurado) 1817 - 1892 decided to enlarge the body, build it lighter and used fan bracing, in order to get more volume. Maybe to obtain performance on stage, in halls and bigger rooms and for the more modern composers music.

I think we should honor the smaller instruments repair and restore them and use them for the music from that era. Another thing I would say about this smaler type of guitar is that I strongly recomend them for children! So guitar teachers it is far better to use this instruments for your students than to send them to a shop and buy a factory build child guitar. You keep old instruments alive, it is better for their hands, techniek and hearing and it will not lose value but on the contrary it will become more valuable.

Back to this guitar

It is a so called “post romantic non Torres classical guitar” It has the shape and dimensions of a baroque and an early romantic guitar, but is build in a later period. It is not a replica and I think it is build in France around 1920. I repaired this small instrument and it became a little jam.The sound is sweet and mellow. It has good sustain and volume. There will be a sound sample later.

• Mensuur; (Scale) 61,5 cm.
• Wood all solid: top; very nice book matched german spruce, back and sides; two different types of book matched mahogany, neck; round, mahogany, fretboard; maple with mother af pearl dots, bridge; maple, maple pins with mother of pearl dots, rosette and bindings; maple and ebony.
• Nut rosewood with nul fret.
• Saddle; brass.
• Fingerboard; 42 - 53 mm.
• Frets; brass ,18.
• Strings; Pyramid Lute Guitar.
• Dimensions:
• Body; lenght 45 cm, upper bout; 21 cm, lower bout; 27 cm, depth; 68 to 76 mm.
• Overall lenght; 92,5 cm.
• Tuners; nickel and brass, original, restored, they work all right now.
• Distance; from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the strings, 3,5 mm!

Price: € 885

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNUvpXpAb_o