Eugene Albert Flute (silver)This instrument can be dated around 1855
Note refined workmanship though E. Albert
is better known for his clarinets
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
E.J. Albert Flute
E.J.Albert flute silverplated in a new case.Still an underestimated belgian flute (Bruxelles)
Alpha / Alfesta Guitars
These guitars were made at the former Egmond factory in
Boxtel (The Netherlands) Around 1975 they produced
midrange steelstrings for Martin using the Martin blueprints.
They marketed these guitars under the Alpha brand
for the european market and the Vega brand for the
Americain market. As Egmond didn't meet the high standards
required by the Martin company the latter decided to stop
production of these guitars in the Netherlands.
As Alpha was the brandname entered by Martin the
Egmond company used a subbrandname Alfesta to
be able to produce mostly lower priced models for
the domestic market in general.
The guitar presented here is a Alfesta W160 which
must have been a lower priced model deduced from
the sticked soundhole decoration and the rather poor
and sloppy gluing. But by using a good concept and honest
materials as solid spruce for the top and (stained) maple
for its' sides this guitar sounds pretty good.
The poor neck to body construction can be seen here by
clicking on the picture above. It will hold this time but in a
lot of cases it didn't. By changing the cheapy bridge
saddle and a good flattening of the bridgegap this guitar is
really surprising soundwise though it is my opinion that
wide grained tops generally do a good job on steelstring
guitars. I will come up with some more models but the
pictures have to be made again because something went
wrong when uploading these ones: Alfesta W160, ST090,
and Alpha A 690, A 687 and A 100 (gutstringed guitar).
Presented here is the Alpha 690 which is the copy of a
Martin D28. Workmanship is good apart from the neck /body
construction that has been repaired now. Materials are
of a slightly lesser quality than on a genuine Martin but
the sound result is astonishing. Lots of volume, good
balance and a very nice overall sound. There was
a seam between the two halves of the top but an inlay
will do the work and will colour to its' surroundings
in time. The inner woodwork follows that of the
Martin D28 and even the center inlay on the back in
the next picture is exactly the same as on the D28.
The tuners on this guitar had an ugly form to my
believe so I changed them with more recent Schaller knobs.
The neck has a nice profile and is stable enough.
This is the Alfesta ST090 which is believed to be a subbrand
in order to produce and export guitars without the Martin addition.
Workmanship is of lower quality than on the Alpha instruments
but the sound is good anyway. A bit of a Gibson LG sound but
with more volume in spite of the remarkable small soundhole.
Materials used on this guitar are maple for the back and sides
and solid spruce for the top. The neck is believed to have been
made out of maple as well. Maybe a bit chunky but the
tuning holds up well with this guitar.
Yes, I keep on searching for all the Alpha models.
This one's a A 688 model with maple sides and back.
As has been previously stated all materials are solid.
Again the prone neck / body construction but after
some work it is playable again.
The heelblock of this guitar has the interesting addition
V 646 which stands for a Vega model sold by Martin
in the USA. Martin quickly ceased the import of
Vega guitars from the Netherlands and most likely
this was a left-over so Alpha decided to put a
plastic shield on the head, probably over the original
Vega inlay.
Presented here is a gutstring model A 100 that
still can be found in the Netherlands at various
places. Though the materials used were quite
honest, the matt laquer didn't appeal to most
of my pupils at that time apart from the fact that
they were more expensive than their Japanese
counterparts. Spruce soundboard and mahogany
sides and back, all solid. They sounded quite
good anyway. This one came to me with a
broken neck probably caused by rude package
sending. They gave me my money back as
the package was insured but only after several
calls (and months)
Not the most beautiful example in this serie but a
spanish style acoustic guitar labelled Alpha A 250.
These guitars came in the following models:
A 100, A 200, A 250, A 300, A 400, A 450, A 500
and A 550. The 500 series being executed with
a rosewood soundbox and nice tuners as well.
Not the most beautiful example in this serie but a
spanish style acoustic guitar labelled Alpha A 250.
These guitars came in the following models:
A 100, A 200, A 250, A 300, A 400, A 450, A 500
and A 550. The 500 series being executed with
a rosewood soundbox and nice tuners as well.
As the other examples in this serie quite a straightforward
execution of the soundbox and neck. But all solid materials
and this model has an inlayed rosette while on the A 100
they were stickered. Sides and back are stained in
order to give these instruments a mahogany look.
Probably a bit more attention to detail in assembling these
guitars regarding the higher end models. Better glue work
for instance and a better quality soundboard.
As this guitar was obtained very cheap I decided to
do an experiment with this instrument. At first I had
to make a repair on the soundboard in the lower
bout as on the left. It had several cracks due to an
earlier accident. After that someone probably stained
and varnished the guitar. And to mask these short-
comings the outer ends of the lower bout were
stained a bit darker.
The insert can be seen here and the problem with newer
wood and the inevitable leveling of the insert is that the
color is somewhat lighter. After having read an article
about an Arias guitar that has been carefully controlled
regarding thickness of the soundboard it became ob-
vious that around the edges Vicente Arias made his
soundboards thinner in order to make it work like a
membrane. So I made the soundboard thinner on
the edges for about 0.2 mm and probably even more.
The result was a much more resonant instrument
with beautiful basses and a better response on the
higher notes. As these guitars have a very traditional
Torres bracing you are able to get that woody "older"
guitarsound. From a bit dull instrument it turned
into a lively, very usable guitar!
Rive Robert flute (silver)
Rive Robert flute: made by Alexandre Robertwho was the foreman of the Thibouville Cabart company
before he took over Rive's business.
Louis Lot Flute (chromeplated)
Louis Lot chromeplated flute.It's number is high in the 9000
made by Pauline Chambille
Louis Lot Flute (silver)
Louis Lot flute: all silver instrument in magnificentcondition. Though a later one (1921 Ernest Chambille)
it really has that magic. A future collectable one!
On this pic the main body engraving can be clearly seen.Length of headjoint and liponening unaltered.
Another detail of this beautiful flute.
By clicking on this pic you can see the headjointengraving and other parts as well.
Philipp Hammig Flute (silver) SOLD
Philipp Hammig full silver flute with two heads.These flutes may not win the beauty contest but they
are really nice players (mid sixties)
L.Lebret Flute
L.Lebret flute (silverplated)They are not all equal in quality but this one has that
sought after creamy french tone!
Johann Kern Flute
Johann Kern Flute: a silverplated example of this in1933 established firm in Stuttgart.
Is there any relation to the Johann Kern mentioned
in the Langwill index?
Armando Gimenez Guitar SOLD
Armando Gimenez classical guitarMade in Torondojimeno (north of Granada)
in 1964. Little information can be found.
Helmut Hanika (no label)
This Helmut Hanika guitar us from about 1970.
It is equipped with a solid spruce top and rosewood
sides and back. The bridge is made out of rosewood
as is the fingerboard. Though there is no label sticked
in this instrument, the plantilla umistakebly is pointing
towards Hanika who also built guitars for dealers and
other companies as has been stated by Marion Hanika.
The rather mediocre quality of this rosewood
doesn't have any negative influence n the tone of this
instrument. The sides do fit the back of course and
the inner construction is of a high quality as is
often the case with Hanika instruments.
The nice rosette can be admired here and a typical german
bridge completes this instrument. After refinishing the top
the brilliance in tone was there again. I'm not sure wether
if Hanika treated his soundboards with a kind of oil but
it influenced the sound in a bad way: muffy, dull and
no brilliance at all which counts for all registers.
Ibanez AW 95 Twelvestring / Ali Khalifeh Oud / African Lute / Oud Damascus
The Ibanez AW 95 Artwood series twelvestring guitar.
This guitar has the following specs.
- Solid spruce soundboard
- Solid rosewood sides and back
- Mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard
- Wooden linings and scratchplate
Here is the quite plain head though this model
was the highest twelvestring model in the artwood series
at that time. Very nice tuners as well but in chrome.
The back shows us the nice woods used for this guitar.
By clicking on this picture you can also examine
the nicely shaped volute just beneath the head.
All Ibanez collectors are keen on label so here
is a readable picture of it.
"Handcrafted from select solid woods in Japan"
and the Mr. Honda stamp.
And of course the neckblock stamp
that shows us the number: 0103264
and the model number AW 95.
As I'm not an Oud connaisseur I bought a more
decorated example at first in an Auction House.
They in fact had two Ouds for sale and begged me
to buy this one as well. I was not interested but for
10 euro's I bought it. After repairing and restringing
I came to the conclusion that this one was much
better than the more expensive and decorated one.
Oud: Ali Khalifeh
decorated example at first in an Auction House.
They in fact had two Ouds for sale and begged me
to buy this one as well. I was not interested but for
10 euro's I bought it. After repairing and restringing
I came to the conclusion that this one was much
better than the more expensive and decorated one.
This instrument has a nice shaped bowl which seems to
be important for these instruments in particular.
Ali Khalifeh was a well respected builder but I only
discovered that being home with this instrument and
after consulting Internet. There was a label inside!
This decoration is typical for his instruments. Other
people took over his business and quality declined.
As this instrument has a lot of tonal qualities I decided
it to give better tuning knobs and an ivory nut.
Presented here are the old ones. Another repair on the
soundboard behind the bridge was necessary but
it holds up well now.
African Lute: Gunibri (Maroc)
The front of this ethnic instrument. At first we thought it to be
a touristic made instrument. However, the markings on the neck
have been placed with a meaning. the octave has been divided
inorder to be able to play a diatonic (or chromatic, if you wish)
scale and a turtle shell wouldn't be used easily for tourists.
At that point the coconut shells do come in!
Again, and now from the back: the neck runs through "the body"
and also acts as a kind of tailpiece for which they had to make
a hole in the skin they provided. At first glance the strings appear
to be made of nylon but no! They are made out of sinew which
is made out of Antilope's tendon. The sources that talk about
these instrument differ in their country where they came from.
Maroc is an option but regarding the "Antilope" strings
Kanuri (Western Sudan) seems to be more likely.
The goat skin (?) is sticked around the turtle shell.
A piece of wood serves as a bridge.
We actually bought it pure for the shell as older musical
instrument are often ornamented with turtle shell material.
The neck is carved being a face at the top and the neck
is not in one piece, probably to add another neck in case
this one should break but also to be able to make a
good intonation possible by watching the carvings.
As an animal lover as well I hope the turtle was already
dead I must say. I would never buy a kind of instrument
like this being aware of the fact that they have to kill
animals for it. The same counts for ivory!
Oud from Damascus
The Oud possibly dates from 1976. But we are not sure.
The bowl form seems OK to me.
Who is able to read the text in Arab?
The head with different keys in it....
The Bowl form.
The inlay on the edge.
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