Specifications:
- Soundboard: spruce; Back and sides: cypress
- Nut width: 50mm, String length: 650mm
- Flamenco style
- Three panel back
- Head with tuning pegs
Description:
This 1921 Domingo Esteso guitar is very lightly built, around 1,100 grams, owing in part to wooden tuning pegs instead of metal tuning assemblies. It has an bright, clear, singing voice. One can see why Domingo Esteso was revered in his day, and what he learned working in the same workshop as legendary luthiers Manuel Ramirez, Santos Hernandez and Modesto Borreguero.
The instrument has a new fingerboard, which had to be replaced after deteriorating from long years of playing, but is otherwise in original condition. Its soundboard is spruce, now nearly 100 years old, and its body is cypress. This is a wood combination which is very traditional and was common in that era, though today, it is mostly seen in flamenco guitars.
Even at 99 years of age, there is a lifetime of music still to come from this marvelous instrument! It has a charming, immediate sound, and due to its light construction, can burst with explosive flamenco sound, as well.
A tip on tuning pegs, to gain leverage, use a plastic tuning crank. Hold the guitar’s head in one hand, and the crank in your other hand, rotate the peg, and when you reach your desired position, push against the peg driving it into its hole.
To learn more about Domingo Esteso, this link will connect you to a Wikipedia page concerning him as well as one concerning the workshop of Manuel Ramirez, where Esteso learned his craft.
A modern day maker inspired by the Manuel Ramirez workshop, where Domingo Esteso worked, is Tobias Braun. There is also a guitar of Tobias Braun in this collection.
To enquire about this guitar, please go to our Contacts page.
