Please be patient...I will update this page with many more instruments shortly. Thank You... Roger Thurman
Thurman Guitar & Violin Repair - 900 Franklin Ave. - Kent OH 44240
330-673-4054
Click on the image to see a Yamaha classical guitar brochure dating from the mid-1960s.
send email to: rogluthier@aol.com
The Nova Futura is also described HERE.
Find out about Artists Who Play the LoPrinzi Nova Futura
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New Handmade Classic Guitars
-Bela Gemza classic guitars. Gemza made guitars in Lyndhurst, a Cleveland, Ohio suburb, from the '50s until his death from cancer in 1985. Short in stature with thick hands and thick glasses, his was a most kind, loveable personality. Displaced from Hungary by World War II he started in the U.S. with nothing and strived to make great, original guitars and lutes of the finest materials from a workshop in the basement of his modest home. Time has shown that he succeeded. I had several of guitars which he and his late wife Eleanor thought were better and kept back for sale in retirement. They date from the 1970s and have original rosettes, E.I., spruce, eb fb, lac, dovetail neck joint. They project beautifully with a complete tone which has gained authority like a fine aged red wine. Each guitar is braced somewhat differently because he always modified his work to fit his perception of the materials. All have striking maple binding and a trademark rosewood backing "cap" behind the head stock. The slim Gemza neck is reinforced with a maple strip. Miguel Alcazar, Joseph Breznikar, Jorge Morel and Carlos Montoya have owned and played his guitars. There is a great sincerity evident in his work which must be appreciated. Gemza made a very consistent, fine instrument (about 250 total) which is underrated, very special and a profound value
-Gemza classic guitar #175 (1973), 650 mm scale length. Cedar, E.I. rswd body, mak nk, eb fb, 52 mm. nut width, rswd br, lac finish, commercial rosette, mother-of-pearl Art Deco tuner buttons. Not strung and showing evidence of sloppy flat picking on either side of the fingerboard, this is the only Gemza guitar I have seen bearing a distinctive partial 20th fret. A couple of dryness cracks on the fingerboard will disappear when cosmetically repaired. I believe this instrument was sold but later exchanged because of the fingerboard problem. Apparently the cracks were once filled but then opened wider. Something tells me this guitar will really sing after refretting and cosmetic repair of the ebony fingerboard (I will post updated photos which this work is completed). Price when repaired: $2200 w/case. Photos: Face Back Rear Fingerboard Crack Label Tuners Head Back of Head
Click on image to read more about Bela Gemza:
-Gemza 8-course Renaissance Lute (mid-1970s), Hauser pattern, maple ribs and spruce soundboard with a carved rosette. Eb pegs, eb fb, regular frets, rswd purflings and body trim. This, his fourth lute of approximately seven, is a robust pattern made by the late Cleveland luthier, Bela Gemza. Bela strived not only for sound but originality and durability in his choices for materials and construction technique. The pegbox photo demonstrates one of his ideas: a string nut with roller guides for each string. This example is more unusual because the lute is set up for single plain strings on the first two courses but is easily reversible if the player prefers the standard configuration of two strings per course on all but the top string. Price with fitted hard case: $2395. Photos: Front Back Body Rosettte Butt Pegbox Neckjoin Bridge
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Used Classical and Flamenco Guitars
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Miscellaneous New Classic Guitars
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© Roger G. Thurman 1998-2010
All material on this this website is protected under international copyright law and as such is prevented from being used for any other purpose without express written approval
Thurman Guitar & Violin Repair, Inc.
900 Franklin Av.
Kent OH 44240
330-673-4054
