Arcangel Fernandez Spruce Top Guitar 1961 Very Rare

CA0045

Arcangel Fernandez Spruce Top Classical Guitar 1961 Very Rare

In excellent condition and has had one repair.

Hard case include not original.

Arcangel Fernandez of Madrid

Year:

1961 - number 119 classical guitar.

Body:

A body shape that is very pleasing - Indian rosewood with fine-line purfling and rosewood bindings.

Body length:- 488 mm.

Top bout:- 281 mm wide & 90 mm deep.

Waist:- 243 mm & 92 mm deep.

Bottom bout:- 371 mm wide & 93 mm deep.

Front:

European spruce - with a colourful, geometric rosette pattern typical of the maker and of Madrid in that period. Rosewood bridge with bone-framed tie-block capping having the same decoration as the central tiles of the rosette.

Tuners:

Gotoh lyre pattern - though an original set from an Arcangel accompanies the sale.

Scale:

66cm with 19 frets on an ebony fingerboard

Neck Width:

49.5mm at the nut with 42.5 mm string spacing.

The front has one spliced crack repair below the bridge on the treble side.

The back has one 9cm shrinkage crack up along the heel slipper, bass-side - and a 6cm small crack on the edge of the bottom bout, bass-side. Both stable and of no consequence for sound.

The guitar has been re-polished in a cellulose finish - and has been done extremely well..

Open to offers.

Arcangel Fernandez, now retired, is one of the great Madrid makers. He started making in the mid-1950's having learned his craft from the legendary Marcelo Barbero who died in 1956. Mainly known for his fine flamenco guitars, Arcangel also produced a much smaller quantity of very good classical guitars. Some of them had a short first string sustain like the flamencos but this one plays and feels like a true classical. It has a lovely sound with depth of bass from its F# air resonance and a sweet, sustaining treble.

Much of the construction detail such as the plantilla, head shape, internal bars and strutting owe much to Marcelo Barbero.

This is another example from what many consider one of the golden periods of Madrid guitar-making.