Guitar
guitarz.blogspot.com:
For me there is nothing worse design-wise on an acoustic guitar than weird soundholes that just don't work aesthetically. A number of modern guitars have soundholes of different shapes placed in various different positions - no doubt for tonal properties rather than for aesthetics - but often I just think how dreadful they look.
I do however, quite like this design on this 1950s Carmelo Catania Era II. It seems so weird to see an archtop jazz guitar with anything but f-holes, but look at the photo from Carmelo Catania's catalogue (below) and you'll see that their basic jazz guitar was offered in four versions each with different soundhole designs.
The eBay seller tells us this about Carmelo Catania:
G L Wilson
© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
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Guitar
Carmelo Catania Era II vintage jazz guitar from Sicily
guitarz.blogspot.com:
I do however, quite like this design on this 1950s Carmelo Catania Era II. It seems so weird to see an archtop jazz guitar with anything but f-holes, but look at the photo from Carmelo Catania's catalogue (below) and you'll see that their basic jazz guitar was offered in four versions each with different soundhole designs.
Throughout the 900 Sicily was one of the most relevant production centres of musical instrument together with The Marches and Lombardy. Set so far away from the high standards of the arch instruments made in Cremona and from the quality of the Neapolitan mandolins, Sicily was quickly renown as the land of luthiers. Curiously, all Sicilian luthiers were born in Catania, at the feet of Etna, the volcano.Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £350 and Buy It Now price of $675.
The poor economy of the region highly contributed to the huge migrant wave in the 20s towards France that gave birth to an extraordinary school of French luthiery. The luthiers from Catania are to be mentioned: Pappalardo, Di Mauro, Amico, Anastasio, Busato, Bucolo, Castelluccia, Favino, Olivieri, Burgassi, Martella, Grizzo, Rossito, Petillo...among many others.
Luthiers in Sicily were always open to both the Baroque influence from Spain and to the innovations coming from Europe and The States. The first great star among Sicilian luthiers was surely Carmelo Catania who was the only one to understand that the image of the luthier had to become more of a businessman to survive on the internal and international market. Carmelo Catania’s golden age was from the end of the war to the 60s. The cultural and economic situation brought Carmelo Catania to produce an incredible wide range of crafted instruments on industrial scale. The few pages of his catalogue here reported show his skills in bringing together all the different external influences in a typically Sicilian sensitivity. Carmelo Catania was probably the first luthier to organize himself industrially, promoting himself, exporting guitars, settling commercial alleys and trades. He created a real production headquarter in Sicily making instruments or parts on behalf of third parties.
G L Wilson
© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
- K. Yairi Yb-13 Electro-acoustic Bass
guitarz.blogspot.com: The K. Yairi YB-13 gives us a completely different take on the electro-acoustic bass guitar, with more than a nod to the violin bass design of Gibson, Hofner, et al. The Yairi name is well respected in Japanese luthiery, although...
- Avalon Carl Verheyen Signature Handmade Double-cutaway Acoustic Guitar From Ireland
guitarz.blogspot.com: I don't really like acoustic guitars with cutaways. Although cutaways have been seen throughout the history of the guitar, the fact that this type of design seems to predominate on acoustics is a trend that has been developing...
- Vintage & Rare Guitar Of The Week: The Lanzi Telecarla From Argentina
guitarz.blogspot.com: Last month here on Guitarz we looked at a bass from Argentinian luthiers Lanzi Instruments, namely the Lanzi Mk1 Rick Bass which takes the famous Rickenbacker 4000 series bass design as a starting point and boldy updates it for the...
- Vintage & Rare Guitar Of The Week: Prohaszka Silver Sparkle Flat-top Acoustic
guitarz.blogspot.com: Balazs Prohaszka is a luthier from Hungary who has been building musical instruments since 1994. He has much experience of repairing and building guitars, violins, lutes and double basses so he surely knows his way around the anatomy...
- An Article In New Luthiery Magazine Sustain
This month I have the honor to have a few pages about my humble work in the first issue of Sustain, a new magazine published by the Fellowship of European Luthiers! You may remember that about one year ago, I posted about meeting Leo...