Repair: 1840 Luigi Filano Romantic Guitar

Recently I restored this 1840 Luigi Filano guitar made in Naples, Italy. It is very similar to the more well known Gennaro Fabricatore instruments made in the same city. The problems were a loose back with loose and broken binding, loose back and top braces and various cracks. The guitar was not strung up so I could not gauge playability, but as I worked with the guitar I noticed it needed fretwork and a saddle. The original saddle slot had been filled and they were using a piece of wire as a saddle. The neck is very thin compared to modern classical guitars but perfectly straight after all these years thanks in part to the veneered construction. The fingerboard is flush with the top so the neck is set angled back to get correct action.

removing binding (probably not original)

Inside when I just opened the box. I removed some previous reinforcements.

Top braces that were loose on the ends.

Glue that had to be cleaned off the back to glue back braces on again.

Clean back

Cleaning the back braces

Gluing the ends of braces

Repairing lining

Crack that had to be filled

Reinforcements and bridge plate crack repair

The finished top

Neck set before regluing back

Regluing the back

Fitting new binding

Gluing new binding

New binding

The finished guitar

Repair: Miguel Rodriguez Sr., 1942

This simple guitar from 1942 to my ear has one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.  It has traditional Torres bracing, cypress back and sides and strong European spruce top. Definitely not a high end model and went from machine heads to pegs sometime in its life.  This guitar was much loved by its original owner, a family from Cordoba and this was the guitar that the owner had as a child and turned him into a great guitar collector.

The guitar was brought by its current owner for minor wear issues such as a couple of cracks on the soundboard, new frets and a new golpeador.  The back and sides had no cracks and had never been repaired.

These pictures are from before the repairs and unfortunately I could not take any after photos.

The simple but lovely rosette.

The simple binding scheme.

These next pictures show that the top was built almost flat and string tension made the belly behind the bridge. It is slightly concave in from of the bridge and the lower harmonic brace is slightly curved.

Repair: Pedro Maldonado (made by Luis Maldonado) 1995

Pedro Maldonado and his sons Pedro and Luis are very well regarded guitarreros working in the cities of Malaga and Torremolinos in the Spanish region of Andalusia. Pedro Maldonado the father originally from Loja in the province of Granada studied the craft under the makers of the Granada School Manuel de la Chica, Eduardo Ferrer and Antonio Robles.

Many famous players own and play Maldonado guitars including the owner of this one, the Iranian singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Faramarz Aslani.

The main problem with the guitar was a badly repaired headstock crack.  Repaired on the run with some synthetic glue and a clamping without cauls.

The crack actually didn't completely close and had a filet of glue holding it together.  There were also a few cracks on the top and one on the back. One of the cracks on the top was also badly repaired and even though it was holding up OK, I tried to make it look a little better.

before

after

For the headstock repair I recommended a back of the head reinforcement which would basically reconstruct the area of the break.  All the repairs were done with hide glue.

For  the cracks on the top and back I try to get them perfectly aligned and use light 1 mm thick redcedar cleats to reinforce the top cracks and spanish cedar cleats for the back. Then I seal the cracks with shellac and do a tiny amount of french polish.

after

before

The guitar's sound improved a lot after the repair, regaining it's high end. Thanks Faramarz for trusting me with the Maldonado.