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Here is an early Castelluccia, the guitar had a fixed bridge on it when I got it which was not original to the guitar. Luckily it was easy to remove it. the guitar needs quite some restauration, I have just cleaned it and put some strings on it to get an idea how it sounds. This is loud, with very pronounced deep basses. Maybe the high action plays a role. It needs a new fretboard, neck-reset. sanding the top to get the glue off where someone had put that misplaced bridge. The top still has its original bombé, the back is arched like all the other gypsy guitars. Very nice bindings. I am not sure of the woods used on the back and sides. Maybe someone has got an idea, I'm not sure it is mahogany... . The typical Castelluccia heal.
These all have sort of classical body shapes. You sure this isn't a classical someone modified into a tailpiece guitar. I sorta think the classical bridge was original, it popped off and someone Djangofied it.
@paulmcevoy75 I am 100% sure. First of all, classical guitars have different bracing. This one is ladder braced with 3 braces underneath the top like most vintage gypsy guitars I have seen. I have a few vintage classical nylon stringed guitars from luthiers like Castelluccia and they all have the typical fan bracing which you see on classical guitars. However it could have been a hybrid guitar that Gerome/Di Mauro/Busato/Castelluccia/Favino/Carbonell etc. made in that time. These hybrids are called "type Brassens" guitars because of George Brassens almost only played on this type of guitar, he began with Gerome's, than he played on Busato's and than on Favino's. These hybrids are flat top guitars and as far as I know all ladder braced (I own a Gerome "type Brassens". The top of this Castelluccia however was varnished before the fixed bridge was placed. That is another reason why it is not original to this guitar. Also the position of the bridge on the top was 2cm off... . Now I know some of these old guitars don't always have the right position but this is quite extreme. The scale on this guitar is 64cm and the saddle with the fixed bridge was at 30 cm from the 12th fret... The top of this guitar is arched, I have never seen a fixed classical bridge on an arched top guitar.. . Hope this serves as an anwser!
Almost all vintage smaller sized gypsy guitars have sort of classical body shapes.
BTW I really like your new vintage "Busato" guitar and its sound. Also enjoy reading about the guitars you build!
Got it that makes sense. Some non-spanish classicals are ladder braced but I get what you're saying. When you say arched top, you're talking a carved top?
And thanks for the kind words!
Yes I mean the top is a bit "bombé", I could't say if it was carved, I think there is a topic about how they made these tops at the forum of djangobooks.. . I don't know anything about the gypsy guitars build today.. . My luthier has worked at Dupont, so I know a little bit about them but have not played on one. And I read on this forum about the guitars you build and the things you do differently. I think that is a very good thing and in the spirit of the first gypsy guitar builders, they were kind of innovating, mostly because they wanted to make loud guitars since amplification did not exist at that time. Maybe you would be interested in building a hybrid "type Brassens" kind of Gypsy guitar in your own way. JP Favino must have made his last ones by now so now no one is making these guitars. Just some ideas haha...
I do not own a classical Castelluccia, but I can find out how they are braced.
I read that an all mahogany David Enesa gypsy guitar is fan braced. Enesa was a classical guitar builder, he also made some gypsy guitars and he made resonator guitars for Paul Beuscher. There are some videos of this all mahogany guitar on YouTube.
Here is a Castelluccia, the same model, that was for sale at Reverd a few years ago. I wanted to put the link in the post but I get a "code 500" error when trying...
And another one with the same bindings around the sound hole: