The guitar presented here was offered for repair to Mayo
Pamplona. As it is a 1950 (very early!) guitar I figured it
would be nice to start this Blog with. The mother of the
owner bought it from the luthier in Madrid.
According to what more luthiers sometimes did, and
Telesforo Julve did it several times, is the 3 piece
soundboard. But Antonio de Torres already made
guitars with a three piece soundboard. The finger-
board seems to be made out of a rather soft kind
of wood. Reddish in colour and I found that also on
some Valencian made guitars that were "ebonized"
afterwards. Sides and back are made out of an un-
known wood species. Soundboard is 7 fan braced,
almost parallel to each other with no bridge plate.
The exclusive looking tuners are pointing towards a high
grade ment guitar model. Same thing counts or the finely
executed rosette in the typical red and green colors of the
Madrid school at that time. Mayo Pamplona states these
tuners to be made in Argentina but that would be a bit
strange for a luthier working in Spain. But a stamp attest
they really are made in Argentina.
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The label attests the workshop of Juan Orozco was
situated near the centre of Madrid. So there must have
been some contact with other luthiers there. Possibly
Amalia Ramirez is able to tell something about this
builder whether it is senior or junior.
I've included this picture as the untreated wood of the
back can be studied here. Sides and back as well as the
soundboard are glued together with gluing strips that
that were sawed in order to have the advantages of
individual blocks as was more common in those days.
A picture taken from the inner side of this guitar. The sawed
gluing strips were both used for top and back. Moreover the
date and year of manufacturing in this instrument can be seen:
Made in 1950. Dated 29-5-"50.
Opinion about this guitar: Mayo Pamplona
The sound is lovely. The basses are deep and loud, the
trebles are very responsive and sweet. Maybe a little
unbalanced in terms of volume between trebles and bass,
but who cares? It's a really special guitar and it's now
ready for more 70 years or so. Unfortunately the owner
doesn't care as much as I do about this guitar.
( But that's life.)
As for playabiity, Mayo added a 12 hole bridge to be able
to lower the bridgebone while having enough angle over it
and a more agreeable action at the same time. Oddly enough
the fingerboard appeared to be rench polished but that
could have been done along the timeline.
Thanks Mayo, for this very interesting addition.
