sellas 003

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Comment by Anton Wiegers on December 23, 2010 at 12:04

Hi. As for the quality of the builders, the Sellas-family made the best-quality instruments in their time and knew how to make a first class guitar. That is obvious when examining the workmanship on the outside. The second idea is probably more correct; since it was on the inside and the rose would cover-up everything on the inside they simply did not care. If it did/does make any difference on the sound is still to be found out. I have a Santos Hernandez of 1923, made from very mediocre wood, and that instrument is still a fantastic guitar. How come?  I don't know, but I know for sure that, when using the  same wood, I could not get more than € 300 for such an instrument.

Comment by Frei on December 20, 2010 at 5:05

Hmm, this could also be a 'low end' guitar, Im sure you get more attention/time in the insturment with higher end builders. But they had to make a living and time was money. They also had (tigher) wood back then.

Comment by Scot Tremblay on December 19, 2010 at 22:50

We as modern luthiers and players are quite odsessive about how neat, orderly  and clean our instruments are. It doesn't seem to matter how many insides of original period instruments I see, I'm always amazed at the roughness of the of the various parts. If one couldn't see it they didn't seem to care how it looked.

 

This photo illustrates this point very well. There are the clean nicely shaped and beautifully finished replacement bars and then the originals which could have been carved with a broadsword.

 

I sometime wonder if our obsession really makes for a better sounding instrument...but I cannot seem to bring my self to carve braces with my broadsword...not just yet.

 

Thanks for posting these Anton. I love to see restorations of the old ones.