Help identifying old round hole gypsy guitar with classical body

constantine · February 2019

Hello I just picked this guitar up and it has no label or identifying Mark such as the dimauro stamp. I've seen old guitars like this in the past. I'm sure it is not a patennote however I have no idea who the maker is. Maybe makers like Paul Beshher or Henry Miller ? Any help identifying this guitar would be highly appreciated. Thank you, Dean

Bones · February 2019

No clue but how's it sound?

ChrisMartin · February 2019

Hard to tell as many made the same style. I had one similar by Di Mauro but it was marked as such and a Di Mauro would usually have a slightly tapering headstock with a more pronounced point.
Note, it has a tenth fret marker but then so did Di Mauro, Favino, Busato, Couesnon, Henri Miller, Castelluccia and all the usual suspects. I can't see for sure but the tuners look like the common brass with yellow buttons type supplied by Delaruelle to all of the above, and the tailpiece probably came from the same supplier too.
Pierre Fontaine was probably the most productive and least known of the luthiers active in Paris since the '50s claiming to have made 250,000 guitars! He made a lot for Busato but the majority were sold through retailers who put their own labels on, of which Paul Beuscher was probably his biggest customer until they drove wholesale prices down so far he could no longer meet their orders and they started buying cheaper from Japan in the '60s
Beuscher by the way, was strictly a retailer, NOT a maker of guitars.

constantine · February 2019

@Chris Martin thank you, @bones I will post a sample after I watch the patriots win yet another god damn super bowl.

guitarmike · February 2019

No name, no label, no identification ? Then It must be a Busato.

crookedpinky · February 2019

guitarmike wrote: »

No name, no label, no identification ? Then It must be a Busato.

Hahahaha. Absolutely. On a slightly related note, I love some of the exagerated and just plain wrong descriptions of gypsy guitars to be found on ebay. There's currently a Chinese guitar on UK ebay which it's claimed was one of only 10 ever built as the Chinese luthier passed away. A claim which is nonsense as it's clearly been made by the Aersi factory. Even more outrageous is the claim that it was designed after the Maccaferri Royal Cafe Grand Aterton. Anyone ever heard of that Maccaferi model ?