Jose Roca produced guitar with an Audex label / Melchor Rodriguez "Estudio".

Audex Labelled Guitar (Jose Roca - Valencia)

  

This Valencian made guitar before and after the restoring 

process. I will explain what had to be done and though these

student guitars were overlooked in the near past there seems

to be more interest in them nowadays. However the amount

of work (and costs) it requires in fact is not rewarding if

you need to have it done by a luthier. The final sound

always remains a surprise. This example is really above

expectations. Warm, colorful and a great balance though

it misses the brilliance and volume of a good concert

instrument. But for small venues? Not bad at all!

  

Presented here is an early sixties intermediate model from 
the Audex shop. They didn't produce guitars themselves
but had them made elsewhere in Valencia. I have to find 
out where. The soundboard has a 5 fan bracing and the
rosette has been executed more luxury. But even in those 
days (early sixties) the real concert guitars were already
provided with a wider neck. Therefore this guitar must 
be considered as a nice intermediate student instrument.
Width at the topnut is 50 mm and the scale is 650 mm.

  

The guitar is provided with a nice back but strange detail

was that there is no center strip on the inside of the back.

They glued some broad but flat pieces of wood over the 

seam of the two back halves. I filled the hardly detectable 

seam with some wood glue to strengthen parts.

  

Nothing special has been done to the back furthermore but

it is obvious that the polishing compound did his work.

The own frequency of the soundbox lies on a B (which

means around 123 Hz.)

As the lacquer used in those times crystallizes over time, 

I figured it would be better to have all the lacquer removed 

on the string tie block as the tension of the strings are causing

unwanted traces. So the bridge will be lacquered afterwards.

Most entry level Valencian guitars had a black painted bridge.

This one is made out of rosewood.

What often happened was the kind of sloppy way they 

mounted the heel. No big deal as the sides fall into the gap 

made for a sturdy fit but in fact it simply shouldn't be there. 

The Valencia way of constructing the heel partly with a

softer wood such as spruce hasn't been done here. On

the higher grade models the whole outer heel was 

executed out of hard wood.

The same thing on the other side. I will try to 

place and glue a small splinter of wood in the gap.

   

The tuners need to be cleaned and while doing so 

I will correct the sleeves for the strings fit a bit. The 

topnut is way too high and the plastic it has been made

out of, has been detoriated. A new topnut is a must 

here. The headform is exactly the same on the Roca 

guitars I found on the internet. The site of jedistar is 

a very useful tool regarding information around the 

various luthiers.

A remark can made made around the metal rollers used 

here on the tuners as that is pointing towards a  somewhat 

earlier model, probably made around 1960.

  

Topnut and frets are gone. I removed the copper

(too square!) frets and thus I'm able to correct the 

neck / body angle though it wasn't that bad. Small

traces of nail use in the lowest positions can be 

removed now as well. On the right the guitar

neck as it is now.

 

The Audex label was even provided with a stamp: 

"Made in Spain". But furthermore no type number has 

been mentioned. But seeing the elaborate rosette it 

falls into a higher category.

 

  The tuners do not look that spectacular but they are

clinched to the base plate and moreover they work securely

with no play on them even after such a long time.

Once cleaned they already look much better!

 

The topnut didn't even fit well and among other

irregularities, this must have been the reason the 

Japanese factories took over this business.

 

An extra half 19th fret will be mounted for the demanding 

pieces and I will clean the rosette but I will leave the sound-

board the way it is. The old lady may show some traces...

Oiling the fingerboard is a must of course, in fact before

the new frets are mounted. The lacquer on these sixties

Spanish guitar solves a bit in pure alcohol which in

fact gives a much better appearance. A polishing process

afterwards is a must. I use "Nicko" very fine polishing

liquid for the last process.

I found this guitar on Jedistar, a great site for finding 

information around guitar factories and luthiers in

electric as well as the acoustic field. They are showing

a "Roca" labelled guitar with exactly the same rosette

on the guitar here above.

Presented here is the "Roca" labelled guitar with exactly

the same rosette and not only that, the bridge and the 

headform also appear to be identical. So this problem 

is solved around the origin of the Audex labelled guitar.

As for the age, this label was used by the Roca plant 

between 1959 - 1964. That also explains the use of 

metal rollers for the tuners used on the Audi guitar.

The Roca labelled guitar is presented here. On the site of 

Jedistar a high end Roca guitar is presented as well, above the

guitar that is showed here. They made guitars "for everyone".

That was their philosophy. Some more information....

José Roca Navarro started his business ROCA

from the remains of Marinnieta. Marinnieta used 

to be the business of María Dolores Marín Soucase 

(granddaughter of the great guitar builder Andrés 

Marín). José Roca was married to Dolores from 

1945 till 1957.

When José took up the guitar production in 1959 

the market for guitars was picking up to skyrocket 

in  the 60’s. José quickly expanded the production 

with electrical guitars and amplifiers. Besides that he 

started to adapt the guitar materials and production 

methods to lower his production costs to achieve 

lower selling prices. It looks like ROCA is one of

the factors for the race to the bottom of Valencian 

guitar productions. In his interview, José states 

that everyone should be in reach of his guitars.

The range of his instruments was big (everyone 

could find a guitar of his choice) it included bandurrias,

 laúds and concert type of guitars as well. The annual 

volume boosted from 3.600 pcs in 1959 till 25.000 in 

1965, with the main destination Valencia and Spain.

Production locations were in Turís and Xirivella. 

Valencia-city housed the shop, some despatch and 

the office. Wether José did business with Mijubal 

in Turís is not known.

With many thanks to Ton Bogaard who already

did a lot of investigations and is always willing

to help. Just visit: guitarrasvalencia.wordpress.

And Inge and Jan of course who also supplied

some extra information. Inge cherished this guitar

but growing older she is not able to play the guitar

anymore. I've showed them the restoration results! 

Some lacquer work, adjusting some sloppy wood-

work, cleaning the tuners and last but not least new 

frets instead of the too square and roughly filed 

original copper fretwork. As the fingerboard wood 

was not that dense I had to glue in these new frets.

And just recently I stumbled onto another brand that

in fact is closely related to the Jose Roca brand: The 

Francisco Bros (and later only "Bros") labelled guitars

learned their craft in the factory of Jose Roca and

Maria Dolores Marin.

Melchor Rodriguez "Estudio model"

Presented here is a Melchor Rodriguez "Estudio" guitar

most likely from the seventies when the building took place

in Xeraco, about 50 kilometers south of Valencia. Scale

length 660 mm. Width topnut 52 mm.

As I'm always interested in higher end classical guitars from 

Valencia, I decided to give this one a try, seeing that it was equipped 

with an ebony fingerboard, a nice close grained cedar top and 

rosewood as a choice for the sides and back, however laminated 

which most likely explains the addition "Estudio" on the label.

Equipped with a 7 fan strutted soundboard with two closing ribs

and surprisingly individual glue blocks for the top and a very neat

executed inner heel. A lot of features are a bit pointing towards

the Jose Ramirez III concert guitars so in fact Antonio de Torres.

I  will come up with new pictures once the lacquering process

has been done as this guitar deserves it to be brought back in 

pristine condition. The laminated sides and back in fact is a cost 

saving move but that doesn't have to be of influence on the 

sound in a negative way. And it can compete with other high

end classical guitars sound wise. I wish the so called concert

guitars would always sound like this one!

I think these tuners to be from the Fustero company 

although not the highest quality ones.

Someone already attempted to do a restoration and

in fact not even bad but screws are not necessary when

a crack, even in the head area, needs to be reglued. I

will strengthen it with a layer on both front and back

after having made a better fit for the wood parts.

This picture gives a good view on the outer end of the

inner heel. Meticulously done here as are the braces on 

the soundboard and back.

The complete label photographed here though the so called 

"handsigned" label is in fact printed, also on the conservatory

and concert models. Only when an extra signature is present,

these luthiers are pointing towards their highest model.

Yes, I know, reflections but anyway also a nicely executed

bridge with a plastic bridgebone when it came to me. I

doubt that to be original! I replaced it quickly and the

effect is as always: So much better in sound.

  

 

A part of the front layer has been replaced. Where the 

dots are made to cover the used screws here. Normally 

there is always a glue joint near the head so possibly an 

entirely new head would be a possibility in case I'm not 

able to clean the surfaces of the crack properly. Of 

course the headform is a bit derived from the Jose

Ramirez III guitars that also was the example for

Melchor Rodriguez. 

The story around this man remains a bit of a mystery as 

he collaborated with some other luthiers. Melchor himself 

was a concert guitar player and doubts are there that he 

also built these guitars himself. I found some other names 

like Batiste Bofi, Jesus Marzal and Bertrand Marti. 

They seemed to be active in a company called SAFOR. 

But less can be found around their enterprise.