The Granadian school of guitar building has much
history to offer as they mostly stayed close to the
great guitarreros of the past. Even Antonio de Torres
seemed to have studied in Granada. In later times
the influence of Jose Ramirez III and Rodriguez
can be detected. The Granada guitars normally
have a quite modest plantilla but when the popularity
of builders like Jose Ramirez grew, one of the leading
luthiers of Granada, Eduardo Ferrer and his son
in law, Antonio Duran choose for a bigger
plantilla. The scale of this guitar is 66 cm.
It has a 7 fan bracing with two closing bars,
in fact very traditional, especially in combination
with the French polish technique they often used.
Price: € 1950,-
A nice back completes this guitar that is fairly light as
opposed to the instruments of Jose Ramirez although
the plantilla reminds these instruments a bit. Besides
this lighter way of construction they often built with
a domed top, another feature that makes it possible
to construct lighter while retaining enough stiffness.
This guitar has its own frequency on an G which
means in Hz about 98 Herz.
Ironically, this head form still can be found on the Casa Ferrer
guitars but it resembles also the guitars of Juan Roman Padilla.
The latter even produced guitars for Casa Ferrer as has also been
done by Rafael Moreno Rodriguez among others. This headform
already can be found on the guitars of Manuel de la Chica.
I've showed this guitar to Stephen Hill, a guitarrero
in La Herradura, a town at the seaside and about 80
kilometers south of Granada. About my remark
regarding the crudely shaped top nut he laughed
and said: "I haven't seen that much properly shaped
top nuts from Spanish guitar builders". That was
the reason I made a new one out of ivory as also
the spacing wasn't done correctly: a player wants
a bit more space from the first string to the edge
of the neck what it fact makes it easier to make
a good sounding pull off.
The addition of the high end Fustero tuners completes
this guitar of Antonio Duran. Highly ornamented and
beautiful hand engraved tuner plates while the knobs
are riveted on the axes. The Fustero company is out
of business now and people that are searching for these
tuners to mount on their Jose Ramirez Class 1A guitars
are willing to pay high prices alone for these tuners.
I've compared it to a later Eduardo Ferrer (son) guitar
but the Fustero tuners on that were no longer present
but they could possibly have changed over time.
The German company "Vintage Guitar World
recently sold a 1978 example of the same luthier
where the Fustero tuners are already gone...
An interesting article around the Fustero company
can be found in one of the Orfeo magazines.
The label has been signed and dated (1974)
No marks or initials by another builder have been
found though it is of course possible that Duran
has built it himself. Unbelievable as he lost an
arm in an accident but continued to built.
A nice and fairly low Brazilian rosewood bridge that
has a kind of a reinforcement plate of spruce glued to it
at the inner side of the top. Maybe due to his love for
the flamenco way of building he really liked. Recent
investigations learned that this guitar as well could be
ment as a flamenco negra guitar. And most likely
the rather low bridge is pointing towards that.
A nice shot from the side of this well preserved guitar.
These graceful heels can be found still on the Rafael
Moreno guitars and he most likely recognized that.
Sound comparison between two later Eduardo Ferrer
guitars proved that this guitar has a lot in common
with these later built instruments: A somewhat lighter
and vibrant tone for the higher regions that is supported
by the rich sounding lower bass strings.
The love for the guitar in fact can be seen here. Carefully
shaped heel construction as can already be seen on other
pictures here above. I discovered rather crudely placed
frets on this guitar as a result from too much hammering
on certain places. I think this to be strange for a top
luthier and controlled the other Ferrer guitars and a
quite recently built Rafael Moreno Rodriguez guitar.
Those frets were placed correctly so that must have
been done while changing the original frets.
After having played this guitar for a while I've concluded
that there were more qualities in it to discover. Therefore
I've changed the top nut into an ivory one and with the
string spacing I like. But besides that the lowest frets were
worn and as a whole all the frets were only 0,9 mm high.
For pull offs a bit higher fret wire works much better and
because they are more "substantial" tone improvement was
an extra surprise. And to finish everything in a proper way
I've replaced the bridge bone as well into an ivory one.
The new fret wire dimension is 1,2 mm in hight.
In the summer of 2018 I was just walking down the
streets of Granada near the Plaza de Ayutamiento where
I stumbled onto the street "Jesus e Maria" in the San
Matias Realejo district. Before I did realize it I stood
in front of the little shop of Raphael Moreno from whom
I knew he had worked under Antonio Duran Ferrer. The
two even became more like friends and Mr. Moreno built
different guitars for Antonio Duran. "Could you tell me
by several pictures wether if you actually built an instru-
ment for Antonio Duran" was my question. After study-
ing the pictures I've showed him he was absolutely sure.
And Jose Lopez Bellido stated: " When Rafael says he
built it, it is so!" And indeed, even the tuners were made
by the Fustero company as I allready expected.
Mr. Moreno was anxious to learn in what condition the
guitar was. "Superb" was my answer and he just smiled.
Domenico Fischetti
At first I must state that I'm happy with all the people
who are helping with information regarding some more
obscure brands, names and the like. For that reason I also
like to give the information generally provided from some
people of ILSA (Boom - Belgium) an international school
for luthiers (guitars and violins). They were able to tell me
that this luthier has been described in the Vannes dictio-
nary and besides that in the Malou Haine reference book.
Price: € 900,-
Domenico Fischetti is said to be a woodworker that was born in
Catania (Sicily - Italy) in 1905. He started as a woodworker spe-
cialized in the finer woodwork. It brought him to building guitars.
At the age of 25 he moved to Brussels (Belgium)where he opened
a workshop for repairing and constructing guitars and again the
finer woodwork things. The Vannes dictionary further mentions
his finely crafted work and choice of woods.
He must have made more than one guitar of which this
brand stamp is proof. Probably he constructed his own
tuners as they are of a very simple design but do work
well (after a cleaning process!) The same thing can be
said about the rosette around the soundhole: No frills,
just simple concentric circles. His craft can be admired
once opening the guitar which was absolutely neces-
sary because of the loose braces, probably caused by
humidity (bad storage).
The inner woodwork deserves admiration to my believe
but not only that: The woods used are of a premium qua-
lity: Brasilian rosewood for sides and back, a fine grained
top and an ebony fingerboard. Fretwork could have been
done better as a proper rounding of the frets after levelling
is a must to my believe but possibly it has been refretted
later in his life.
The back came off quite easily as it was already partly loose.
The inner heel is the biggest problem most of the time but by
injecting some hot water and taking care (and time) I succeeded
without any extra damage. 7 fan bracing with two closing ribs
and soft wood individual gluing blocks for the top. All braces
have been meticulously formed. The top is a bit doomed and
certainly not too thick so I expect it to be a vibrant sounding
instrument once restored. Fischetti must have had a guitar
from Antonio de Torres in mind. As Antonio de Torres worked
with 5 different plantilla's we still have to compare the
exact dimensions.
As a slight neck reset can be done now, I probably will place a
glue lining for the back that has more width. A new inlay on the
sides will be necessarily. Other reason is that the curves of the
sides didn't follow that of the back anymore - Often the transverse
bars on the back are placed against the sides and under higher
temperature they tend to push the sides away by getting a bit
longer. That problem can be cured now as well.
The sides that clearly fall into the heelblock
made out of one piece of wood. The Spanish way.
A double transverse brace that I would recommend as
the guitar is better resistant to the strong tension of the
strings. The soundhole reinforcement has been very
neatly done. All details have been derived from a
Torres guitar which may have been offered to Fischetti
for restauration during his stay in Brussels.
Reinforcements for the sides and ment to keep the braces
in place but at the same time they're keeping the sides
real straight as well.
The bridge has also been carved out of a piece of
Brasilian rosewood. To my opinion a bit too heavy
constructed and it could have been done a bit lower.
As the bridge is quite narrow it better should be
not too high. Tension forces tend to deform the
soundboard in this manner. It hasn't happen though
until now. Strange thing is that the compensation
of the lower and higher strings, which is different,
has been achieved by placing the complete bridge
under a slight angle. The same thing I noticed on a
Simplicio guitar that was put up for auction in
London by Gardiner Houlgate. The auctioneer
even asked me if this was done by accident!
And of course the Rosette which is quite simple but
with the woods used its overall impression is simply
good. Fischetti probably went for the sound. At that time
Herman Hauser produced some guitars with a similar
rosette and it could well be possible that the influence
of Hauser is present in this instrument. The outer
end of the fingerboard shows a crack and some damage
next to the lower left fretpart. It has no influence on
the strength of a guitar and can be cured with ebony
dust and glue or working in some hardwax by applying
heat. I allways use a soldering gun for that purpose.
In the upper part of the soundbox there is a small cleat
to stabilize the crack that was there. The closing rib in
the lower bout was damaged so I placed a cleat just under
that rib. Near the endblock the wood used for the sides
was too thin to leave it that way. Probably due to someone
who wanted to relacquer the guitar and took off too much
wood. The circle thickening around the soundhole can
also be seen in some guitars of Antonio de Torres.
When cracks close still perfectly there is no need to put a
splint between the two parts. But on the left there was a
longer crack that had to be stabilized. Two cleats between
the upper two transverse braces were necessary while the
crack opened towards the heel. A splint has been mounted
there. All braces have been reglued as they all were loose.
The back that is ready for regluing
A detail of a splint put in the soundboard and
the cleat to strengthen the closing rib. Other cracks
still did close perfectly. Then it is a task to simply
work in the glue and when done correctly the glue
appears on the other side. A small suction cup can
be used to work in the clue as the glue then can be
worked into a crack under a certain pressure.
A rather odd surprise was the thickness of the sides near
the endblock which was allmost like a veneer quality.
Especially on the right side that needed to be strengthened.
Weak spot remains the spot just beside the endblock and
the only way to cure that is to use some polyester. I
decided to use that on both sides and alongside the
glue lining for the back. Glueing alone on the end-
block wouldn't have been sufficient!
To add these polyester layer is of course the last move.
Using polyester as a reinforcement is really not the first
option but absolutely not uncommon in furniture
restorations.
As it is not in the "center of sound production" it will
not have a lot of influence on the sound. Fischetti was a
secure builder but this was of course a strange "mistake"
as in fact also was the use of a too high (and heavy)
bridge on this instrument. Too high bridges will deform
the soundboard under the tension of the strings.
The tuners have been cleaned and after hearing the qualities of
this guitar I thought it to be a wise addition to have the guitar
refret as the outer ends were rounded too much and slipping
off with your fingers is sometimes the result. The fingerboard
has been shaved off towards the head in order to have a nice
playing action. That's a tedious process as when you take
too much off you need to highten the bridgebone too much
and by having no bridge plate and a very thin soundboard,
especially alongside the edges the top is prone to deform!
A detail of the fan bracing in this guitar. It is obvious
that Fischetti made a clever move by heightening the
fan braces towards the transverse bar near the sound
hole. It is most likely done to withstand the string
tension in that area. As a result the soundboard is
still absolutely straight after so much time.
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