In Auckland New Sealand the birth of this guitar
took place. It has been built in 2000 by Rod Capper.
He gave it the name "Celaje" which means "Painting
of the sunrise" very poetic indeed. It is in now good
condition and has a warm and friendly tone.
The back and sides of this guitar have been executed
with Indian rosewood. Rod Capper is known to use
native woods as the climate in New Zealand allows
it to grow useable hardwoods there. The bridge has
been made out of a native wood called Jarra. Maybe
not visible on this picture the back is showing some
deep carvings on this furthermore very nice looking
instrument. Together with the relaquering of the back
the frets will be dressed and the fingerboard will be
flattened out if needed.
The headstock that likely is provided with Schaller tuners
to my believe. They do their job very well. This guitar will
also be equipped with an ivory topnut as string spacing
in fact is a bit of a personal one and I like slightly more
"room" between the first string and the outer end in order
to be able to make a proper pull off execution.
The rosette is quite intriguing as it is very refined.
Though the combination with the darker cedar would
ask for another color setting to my opinion it remains
a remarkable one. My taste for Rosettes is personal
of course.
Under his label he placed another smaller label where
one can find his signature. On the bigger label one can
find the year and month of production: May 2000.
The number is 5 so it probably was the fifth guitar
in that year. In an E-mail states Mr. Capper this to
be a concert instrument and it has those qualities.
By clicking on this picture you are able to study the
bottom of the bridge slot which is surprisingly V
shaped. According to Rod this is to increase the
contact area and thus boosting the energy transport
of the strings to the body.
I think it will not be very surprising but to bring a guitar
back in an immediately playable condition and have the
lacquer brought back in a like new condition asks for
some hours investigating. But the guitar is worth all
that additional work. Of course a good set of strings
will be the final move on this instrument that normally
finds itself in the 5000 Euro's price range.
Augustin Claudot
This french early romantic guitar has been built
by Augustin Claudot who was a member of the
well known Claudot Family of violin makers at
Mirecourt. Though affected by wood insects this
particular instrument still has a wonderful sound.
Mirecourt. Though affected by wood insects this
particular instrument still has a wonderful sound.
This picture clearly shows us the soundboard before
restauration. In fact I was forced to make some radical
decisions regarding reparation. It all worked out very
well! As you will understand: Not my daily guitar.
The back of this Augustin Claudot guitar has been
done with maple as are the sides of this instrument.
This whole instrument has been treated with
Gamma rays in order to kill eventually existing
insects. It should last now for the future.
As on his violins Augustin Claudot allways stamped
or branded his instruments. His violins are said to be
made with nice woods and great craftsmanship. This
guitaris not a one of a kind as the guitar museum in
Mirecourt holds an exactly the same looking instrument!
that there are no bones used. The neck angle has to be
perfect in order to be able to have a comfortable
playability. That is still present to these days.
Ivory knobs had to be there as was original.
The same counts for the ivory inlaid fretwork.
Sitll a beautiful figured maple back
The soundboard that suffered from wood insects but
still absolutely straight which was a pleasant surprise.
Not the entitre soundboard but some spots look worse.
The same counts for the back but this is the only worse
spot on the back and not that vital for the strength of
the guitar.
A better and a more worse part with inlay.
In fact this instrument was praised for the beautiful and
original bridge. No bridgebone but in ebony executed.
A simple soundhole decoration and
ebony wood for the highest frets
Maybe someone tried to fill the small holes in the past
but there are certainly better alternatives though they
all will affect the sound the way it is now.
The inlay on these edges could have been done
better. But that is not a big issue to repair.
The fingerboard indeed is rounded as it came
to us this way. Most likely original as Augustin
Claudot was better known as a violin luthier.
The bottom of the guitar has an ebony inlay. You are
able to take look at the firmly glued bridge as well.
A rather small instrument, but: Total Length: 90 cm
Scale length: A surprising 642 mm Width topnut: 47 mm
Newly added tuning keys.
The head of this guitar that probably has been
veneered quite recently.
Most likely the back has been painted and/or sprayed.
The neck is absolutely straight and has been veneered
with ebony as was common on higher end instruments.
The outer heel still fits perfectly to the body.
The side are not bad at all with only one insert near the heel.
And the other side. You are able to enlarge the pictures
by clicking on them.
A rather big soundhole for such a small bodied guitar.
A finherboard in line with the soundboard as was
common untill appr. 1840.
And the bottom of this guitar. A exact second example
of this instrument can be seen in the Mirecourt museum
in France and maybe even on their website.
Jose Cortes Guitar (Around 1920)
BEFORE and AFTER
First there was a lot of confusion around this guitar:
Should the label read Juan Cortes or José Cortes?
Looking at the tuners it had to be an older guitar and
most likely in the neighnourhood of Valencia and
not Madrid as the so called Juan Cortes guitars are
saying to come from. The Juan Cortes guitars were
possibly produced by Jose Mas y Mas, a big guitar
factory in Valencia. The name is in fact even a fake
name, given by the Dutch importer van der Wouw.
He imported student quality guitars from the sixties
onwards and even numbered them.
When you look closely at the back, you will notice
that the back seems to been made out of one piece of
wood but simply double control from the inside learns
otherwise. What is obvious here is the the more
rounded heel model a lot of Valencia luthiers
built in the first half of the past century is there.
Here the label in this guitar has been photographed but
for some reason the lower right part has been sticked off
with a piece of paper. Luckily the Spanish guitar from the
same luthier / dealer used by Koos Speenhoff carries the
complete label: It says: "Manufactura de Guitarras / e
Instrumentos Similares / J. Cortés / Continuacion
de Jorje Juan, D.N. / Valencia / (Espana)"
The Koos Speenhoff guitar he used can be dated between
1920 - 1930. The son of Jose Cortes ended his business in
1932 so it could be quite reliable.
The Koos Speenhoff guitar is a little more deluxe than
the guitar I'm restoring now. Ton Bogaard from the
guitarrasvalencia.wordpress site did a lot of investi-
gations around the luthiers and factories in and around
Valencia. He is always a very useful source around
these instruments. He examined the guitar of Koos
Speenhoff and declares that the instrument is not
playable nowadays. As a restorer I can immediately
conclude that due to the tension the section of the
soundboard left and right from the fingerboard dis-
torted as a result. This is often the case on older
guitars. The rosette is a bit more deluxe but I
can't conclude the soundboard to be quarter sawn
and most likely: Copper fretwork.
A bit surprising is the rather modern look of the back.
The outer heelcovering is part of the wood for the back.
BEFORE and AFTER
The bridge seems to be placed in an angle. A method
to get a sort of compensation for the octave pitch as was
common in the first half of the past century. In earlier
times there was no built in compensation at all and
only later in time the bridgebone was placed under
an angle.
A close picture from the bridge that clearly shows us
that the edges were more square as opposed to the later
more rounded edges on a bridge nowadays.
The "bulbed" headform can be seen here. But it is
not pointing towards a certain factory alas. Interesting
to see however that an even older Jose Cortes guitar
advertised on the Reverb site has the same headform
and the more rounded outer heel end but another
label has been used for that 1892 (?) dated guitar.
Probably and until now the oldest label of this
luthier / dealer from Valencia.
The rounded heel as was quite popular until 1940 on the
Telesforo Julve guitars. We have to be wide oriented as the
possibility is there that Julve is responsible for this
guitar. The heel made out of spruce is a method to speed
up production as it is a softer and more easy to adapt
kind of wood. On more expensive models this method
mostly isn't there.
The first move was to remove the bridge as it was badly
glued to the top. Then the brittle lacquer has been removed
which can be done while removing a minimum of the wood
itself. Here the neck to body angle has also already been
changed by shaving off the fingerboard towards the
head after having removed the original copper frets.
This guitar is only provided with a ladder bracing as were
a lot of student level guitars in those times. And also after-
wards a lot of simple guitars were only equipped with a
ladder bracing. To avoid warpage of the soundboard it
was often bowed a bit to resist string tension. In this case
they've opted for a clever solution: They "bowed" the bridge
slightly and as it has been made out of hardwood it sets
the top, once glued onto it, thus giving more strength
against the tension of the strings.
As there were some deep carvings in the neck I decided to
strip the whole guitar. Spots from a strange liquid have
been removed as well.
Almost giving the idea that the back has been made out
of one piece of wood but in fact not.
Actually the first move was to repair the head as on
the left the wood cracked due to metal strings and
a much too high installed pitch.
In fact only visible from the back as the front of the
head had a veneer layer that was OK. On the side
the tuners will cover the seam visible there.
While working on this guitar the wood appeared to be a bit
weak so I figured not to use a weaker piece of wood with
the right color but a more sturdy piece of wood.
I've matched the top of the fingerboard with the rather
dark brown color of the sides, visible here. And already
in those times the softer spruce heel is fitted in order to
speed up the process of building a guitar.
Most likely these guitar sides weren't formed in a mold
but by hand on a piece of bowing iron, hence the traces
of the folding on one side.
Story around José Cortés Martinez
José Cortés Martinez (for his friends “Pepito”)
was a study mate and friend of Juan Ponce Parres
in Valencia. After José married, he lived for some
time in Paris (from the end of 1904 till the start of
1905) In Paris he took care as representative for
France and Germany on behalf of Juan Ponce. He
represented the companies “Vicente Parres”,
“Parres y Compañia” and “Juan Ponce”. During
1912 he moved to Hamburg (Möncke-bergstrasze-
12) together with his wife and his son and daughter.
This move made it possible for him to enlarge his
sales area in Germany, Poland, Denmark and the
Netherlands. Via the sales channels of José, Juan
Ponce sold his instruments with great success.
For unknown reasons the friendship between Cortés
and Ponce deteriorated during the years. The relation
derailed in 1917 when José Cortés claimed a high
amount of money as commission on all of his sales in
the countries mentioned. The real reason could be
that his own(!) instruments could not keep up with
price and quality of Juan Ponce’s. Juan Ponce stopped
all contacts with José in view of this claim and also
because of the unfolding of international problems
coming from World War 1. No notes nor letters are
found after this event in the archive of Juan Ponce /
Parres. (The export of Juan Ponce to afore mentioned
countries minimalized from that point).
(translated text of Enrique Santiago)
José Cortés Pardo (son?) continued the business in 1929,
working at the Platanas, 11 in Benicalap.2) In 1929 and
1930 José Cortés Pardo is registered at the Calle Pintor
Vilar 2743) The business was dicontinued in july1932.
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