The Return Of The Mystery 'Sonora' Tailpiece

ChrisMartin

So tell us more.

Do you know who made it?

What did you change?

leinadfr

I changed the bridge, added the Krivo microphone, made a french polish, rectified the frets. For its origin, I don't know, but the tailpiece is characteristic of the Busato of the 1940s. Since she doesn't have a label, I guess it's a sonora. Gypsy guitarists tell me that it's probably a busato, a castelluccia or a Di Mauro! No one knows!

V-dub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk2B1dekdpg

Coincidentally, I just pulled out my Sonora (formerly Hono's) to play a little something for Django on his birthday. If anyone wants a close up or has any questions about anything on this guitar I can try to accommodate

ChrisMartin

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/113367#Comment_113367

It looks very like the Sonora I had and sold a few years ago; (see photo on page 1). There has been a lot of speculation about whether these were made by Busato but that was probably just some people trying to increase the market value. Certainly there are similarities with some Castelluccia guitars although it was known many of the Sicilian luthiers in Paris probably co-operated and supplied each other with parts (bodies or necks) as needed.

The best clue so far is that there is a photo of one the same on page 33 in the book 'Guitares Jacobacci' but to confuse further these had a label for 'Jose Sanchez' which was a fictitious brand used by the Gaillard et Loiselet shop in Lyon. This name was used because by the mid-1950s Jacobacci supposedly had an 'exclusive' agreement to supply the Major Conn stores, so any other guitars sold out the back door, as these were to Gaillard & Loiselet, were given a false identity, That one also has the 13th fret neck joint and the same cast tailpiece usually attributed to Sonora.

I have seen this model with, and without, the typically Sicilian style bridge which has ivory plastic decoration and the headstock profile is also typically Sicilian style, mine had both features, the one in the book has the headstock but a plain bridge. It was known that Jacobacci, Di Mauro and Carmelo Catania (from Sicily) were friends and probably collaborated so it is possible Jacobacci made the bodies and Catania supplied necks (it is known Catania did supply necks to Di Mauro) and possibly some of the bridges too. Many but not all had the Parisian Delaruelle tuners.

So, and this is only speculation based on what evidence we do have, but my guess is Sonora may have been another fictitious brand enabling Jacobacci to sell extra production to get around the Major Conn contract. There have been other models of Sonora guitars and these may have come from Jacobacci or any of the others in the Sicilian network for alternate distribution deals or maybe just accounting, tax or import/export tariff reasons.

Andy W posted previously some information about these, and other similar, cast tailpieces being made in Italy and Giovanni Catania (son of Carmelo) said they often sourced metal parts from Florence and in such quantities that they sold the excess on to other luthiers.

Below is a photo of Antoine Di Mauro, Carmelo Catania and Vincent Jacobacci who were all friends and Giovanni Catania confirmed Di Mauro and Jacobacci would stay with his family when they visited Sicily. This photo was taken outside the gates to Champagne Pommery at Reims and for anyone interested the car is a late '30s Matford; a V8 Ford built when Ford and Mathis shared a factory in Strasbourg.

So, who made Sonora guitars and why?

We have proof Jacobbaci was involved, we also have proof Vincent Jacobacci was friends with Antoine Di Mauro and Carmelo Catania. The guitars have the appearance of Sicilian and Parisian/Sicilian manufacture and parts. It would have been quite understandable for the Sicilians who emigrated to Paris to work and socialise together through the early years of getting settled in the 1930s and especially during the wartime occupation of Paris. This theory also helps to exclude Busato from the equation as he, like Favino, came from the north of Italy even though both are still often referred to erroneously as included in the group of Sicilian luthiers working in Paris.

AndyW

This must surely be a Sonora-Busato special. I won’t take a cent less than $10,000 😜

p.s. tomorrow, seriously, I’ll post my thread on six different types of “Sonora”, with illustrations. 😎

ChrisMartin

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/113384#Comment_113384

Ten Grand?

Ok, if you give me eleven for the near mint Di Mauro Hawaiian I have posted in Classifieds I'll give you ten in trade.

Truly an odd one there, where do you find them? Typical 'pineapple' shape Hawaiian guitar as popular in Europe from the 1930s to the 1950s, but I wonder if someone converted it to play as a regular guitar as these usually had the tuners the other way up, with the buttons at the front of the headstock, easier to tune when playing on the lap. Anyway, I am sure you will tell all soon enough.

Does anyone know of any Italian guitar expert? If, as seems, these cast tailpieces were made in Italy one wonders if they were used on other guitars; this forum is for discussion about our preferred SelMac type Gypsy Jazz guitars but maybe we need to look further afield for suppliers of parts.

AndyW

hey, Chris, dig out your "Sonora" pictures, I'm planning a deep-dive on the different models.

billyshakes

Gents, I love your posts about some of these old "others." The beautiful thing about a forum like this is that if you don't like the title, you don't have to read the post. The work you've done to identify and categorize these lesser known guitars is commendable. It is fair to say you are almost creating a taxonomy for them. I look forward to this deep-dive on Sonora guitars to accompany my morning tea.