Juan Orozco is not from Valencia, nor his father. Though it is
sometimes suggested that his family was part of Valencian con-
structors, that was not the case. Juan had a Valencian connection
in that way that Juan was raised by his grandparents who lived
near Valencia and where he met Cristobal Marí, the foreman of
guitar factory Telesforo Julve. Another link with Valencia is
Manuel Raimundo who produced the ArtesanoTM guitars
exclusively for Juan Orozco when living in New York.
worthy, I will add it to my Blog but it is almost impossible
to check every story as one might be able to imagine.
It is great to get all kinds of mails from all over the world.
Some are unveiling new discoveries regarding the Orozco story
as Juan Orozco senior who was a good luthier as well also was
a business man who had his guitars factory produced in
South America. Alass, I can't say that much about the tonal
qualities of these instruments but I will come up with some pics
of these guitars model 33 and 66 made in Montevideo, Urugay.
of these guitars model 33 and 66 made in Montevideo, Urugay.
This a shot from the model 33 made in 1971. A fairly simple
instrument with a mahogany soundbox. I'm not sure wether if
this instrument has a solid top.
And another shot of its' label. By clicking
on the picture, you are able to enlarge it.
The guitar as a whole: Painted bridge and in fact mediocre
fretwork about the same as most of the Japanese did in the
beginning of the seventies and at the end of the sixties.
The mahogany back that looks straight forward with
no purflings or whatsoever.
Presented here is the model 66 coming from E-bay.
This guitar allready is another story with apparently nice woods.
On the other hand the fretwork could have been done better!
The carved head the way the DiGiorgi guitars were done at that
time. And probably even ebony used for the fingerboard (???)
Many thanks to Paul Harned who made this part of the story possible
This picture makes it even more interesting as these woods
used could be Brasilian rosewood. Nice, nice, nice....
The label and for the forcers under us, indeed: A fingerboard crack
though that won't affect the tone of an instrument that much.
Maybe the new owner will have contact with me in the near future.
I will keep everyone informed!
At this moment there must be 3 generations of guitar building
luthiers with the name Orozco in existence: Juan Orozco I who
merely was active in South America. Besides being a luthier he
was a gifted salesman as well and a lot of guitars are around
with his label. The Juan Orozco II guitars have a different label
and most of them seems to have been produced in Japan in
the TAMA plants. However the label here above puzzles me
as this guitar seems to have been built for Robert Robinson
personally. He choosed the wood and it is apparent that the
back is made out of figured maple. Robert states that Juan
Orozco ( I or II??) also delivered guitars to the Romeros, 3
quite famous guitarists from Spain. This guitar doesn't look
at all like his Japanese counterparts and appears to be high
quality. I hope Robert is able to deliver some more pics!
This guitar has been built in 1974.
