Vintage Musima Fiesta Parlour Guitar Review

As I delve further into these early vintage parlour student guitars it may hopefully become possible to give a fair appraisal of some more of these undocumented guitars that have very often erroneously been dismissed as ‘junk guitars’.

The Musima branded guitars from the 1950’s until the 1980’S were made in East Germany (D.D.R.) and were produced in soviet styled factory co-operatives in Marknuekirchen  which has a long and illustrious history of producing stringed instruments. The Musima Fiesta was retailed in local music stores and was also available via mail order here in the U.K. from 1965 until 1976 appearing in Bell’s music catalogue as one of the cheapest student guitars on the market at that time.

The Musima Fiesta (bottom right) as it appeared in Bell’s Musical Instrument catalogue in 1973. Also worth noting, above the Fiesta is the slightly more expensive is Musima Consetta which was the floating bridge-tailpiece model.

I managed to purchase this 1960’s Musima parlour sized guitar online for less than £10 as it was damaged and necessitated some important repairs to get it playing again. The neck was warped bending inwards and required several sessions of heat treatment to straighten it.  I also had to replace the original bridge with a lower classical bridge to make the strings align to the fret board for ease of playing. The lower bout was raised slightly owing partly to a loose bracing, which I decided to leave alone for the time being.

After a fret level I installed some 9’s light gauge electric strings and was pleasantly surprised by the tone of the guitar which I tuned to ‘D’ for a blues box sound, which most of these basic ladder braced German parlours seem to produce.

This is appears to be a maple laminate top guitar, as most of these instruments in the lower price bracket were, and were made specially for the budget guitar price market, owing to the high demand for cheap student guitars in those times. I have noted that some of the later 1970’s Fiestas had spruce soundboards, however my guitar is certainly not spruce, as I can tell by the grain of the wood. The guitar neck is maple stained dark brown with a palisander rosewood fretboard, with brass frets featuring the standard German zero fret for intonation. The back of the guitar is very slightly arched with an attractive rosewood staining. From an appearance point of view it is the quality white purfing finish around the sound hole and the soundboard that gives this guitar a distinctive clean cut definition.

The Musima Fiesta headstock with the standard Musima “m” logo . A more elaborate logo was used on later (on the front of the soundboard below the bridge) 1970’s productions of this guitar.

This little guitar performs really well acoustically and also sounds really vibrant amplified with the Schaller pickup I installed. Yet another discarded musical artefact rejuvenated with some original mojo restored!

Total guitar length 37inches (94cms) – Scale 241/4 inches (62cms) – Nut 1 ¾ inches (48 mm) – Upper Bout width 10 inches (25 ½ cms) – Lower Bout 13 ½ inches (34 cms) – Body Depth 3 ¼ inches (8 cms)

Lucas Campbell   April 23rd 2024

Broadway ‘Six Five Special’ Guitar By John Grey & Sons

The Broadway ‘Six Five Special’ was certainly marketed to tie in with the popularity of the T.V. Show by John Grey & Sons who rebadged so many imported instruments  

This “Six Five Special” is one of the cheapest made small all plywood body parlour guitars from the 1950s British skiffle era and can be dated to the years of the British BBC T.V. music show of which ran from 1957 until December 1958.

I suspect this was a budget priced Egmond guitar made in Holland and may have been assembled here in the U.K. There are also strong similarities between this guitar and some of the cheaper Framus ‘Broadway’ branded guitars made in Germany during this period.

John Grey & Sons were musical instrument dealers and distributors based in London being a subsidiary of Barnett Samuel & Sons whose beginnings can be traced back to Westminster, London in 1832. In 1932 John Grey & Sons was bought by Rose Morris a larger company who specialised in gramophones and also produced ‘Kruna’ guitars. The John Grey brand continued into the 1940s & 1950s using the sub brand name of ‘Broadway’ on drum kits, Guitars and banjos.

The repairs carried out on this guitar were as follows.

Soundboard top reinforced with extra struts and bracings to compensate for the usual sagging inward belly syndrome that most of these plywood guitars suffer after having been stored in damp locations.

The back panel also given two extra struts as the two existing ladder bracings are very thin low profile and were barely adequate.

The neck and what appears to be a multi-layered plywood fret board were surprisingly reasonably straight and only required some minor fret levelling. I found an old bakelite floating bridge which suited the guitar better than the old wooden one that came with the instrument. The original metal tailpiece cleaned up but some slight corrosion remains visible, as is the case with the tuners which are original. The sound is almost exactly what you would expect from this type of guitar which projects that old basic blues box folksy sound ideal for the young skiffler of that time.

These types of cheaply made imported guitars are often ignored by guitar collectors and purveyors of musical instruments but in my opinion they offer a unique microcosm of that early era when even beginner instruments were not that plentiful. Perhaps a little more kudos and appreciation of these relics may be forthcoming in the future before they disappear completely into house clearance skips and eventually the giant dustbin of time.

Guitar scale 25 ½ inches.

Neck zero fret, 18 composite metal frets.

Hardwood nut 1 ¾ inches

Lower bout 13 ½ inches

Upper bout 10 inches

Side depth 3 ½ inches

 

Lucas Campbell  December 2019

 

‘The Michigan’ Beare & Son German Parlour Guitar Renovation

Renovated 1940s East German Tailpiece style ladder braced small parlour guitar

Another example of a quaint German parlour guitar that had suffered years of neglect and was about to pass the point of resurrection with so many damages with serious neck and sound board problems which would be deemed by most repairers as too labour intensive for such a cheaply made plywood guitar.

However I viewed this guitar as an interesting historical project as the indications of the guitar’s origin point towards East German production during the Soviet occupation after WW2 which would date the guitar between 1946 and 1952 indicated by the shape & design of the tailpiece which is peculiar to this era of post war German guitar making, as are the tuners which are also typical German design which ran throughout the 1950’s as well.

‘The Michigan’ was the dealership brand of Beare & Son Ltd London & Toronto  from the 1930s – until the 1960s  

Further to the guitar’s history “The Michigan” brand headstock logo which also states “B.& S. L. Sole Agents” was the musical instrument moniker for Beare & Son Limited of London who were the first musical instrument wholesalers in England using the ‘cat & fiddle’ trade mark. Beare & Son were established in 1865 by John Beare and his son Arthur who were known foremost as violin dealers also running a music publishers business having published some Edward Elgars early compositions, but it was their involvement in the post war guitar boom of the 1940s & 1950’s that Beare’s ‘The Michigan’ brand came to the fore being found on many mainly East German & Czech instruments including mandolins and ukuleles, they also rebadged U.S. made guitars with this logo and opened a dealership in Toronto retailing in Gibson guitars. John & Arthur Beare are still in existence today as a company dealing in high quality violins.

Repaired Beare & Son German parlour soundboard with extra bracings

I had to remove the soundboard of the guitar which was bellied inwards and badly warped which I reinforced with extra bracings and supports especially around the sound hole area after having also detached the neck for heat straightening with clamps which was a partial success. I made a bridge and saddle from some spares which does the job but it will be fitted with a bone saddle to match the nut next time I restring it, having used electric 9’s this time to keep the tension low on the neck. This little guitar now plays reasonably well in spite of its hard life and it has a great bluesy tone as you would expect from a parlour guitar from this era, but the true grit vintage blues tone of it via a Schaller Vintage Pickup 10/43 is really outstanding for such a small guitar connected to a practice amp.

An unusual wood veneer finish on for the sides of this East German parlour guitar

All things considered this was a very worthwhile renovation project taking into account that this was an all ply student budget price parlour produced in that immediate post war period in East Germany when materials for musical instruments would have been scarce. It really is an absolute gem worthy of just a little extra work to re level the neck sometime in the future.

Guitar spec.

1940s East German Tailpiece style ladder braced small parlour guitar. 

All plywood build (possibly maple 3 ply top)

Total guitar length 37 ins. (94cms)

Neck (possibly maple) ‘C’ shape profile

Fretboard (pearwood or maple) zero fret, 18 brass frets.

Bone nut 1¾ ins. (4½ cms) approx.

Lower bout width 12¾ ins.

Sides 3ins. depth 

Sound sample of the guitar with a Schaller pickup.

Lucas Campbell

November 2019

                                                              

Francesco Perretti & Figli Parlour Guitar Renovation

Francesco Perretti & Figli vintage parlour guitar renovated and playable again

I bought this old and now somewhat rare Italian gypsy style guitar for parts a few years back as it appeared to be beyond repair having so many serious neck problems after many years of neglect by previous owners. It was without doubt one of the worst examples of guitar vandalism with so many strange circular impact marks on the back of the neck. Upon close examination those faults were as follows. 1. Neck bowed and forward leaning. 2. The dreaded neck twist to the right. 3. Fret board surface rot (8^th to 13^th fret area) 4. Broken neck heel, with an old rusted large metal screw repair.

The mahogany neck is a three section build around a central strip section and what was originally a nice rosewood fret board which had become divot ridden after a sustained period of what may been dampness exposure. I releveled the neck with  several files, the top layer of rosewood almost disintegrated after I removed frets 8 to 16 which I later replaced. Removing the large screw with the aid of a hacksaw from the heel which was supporting an old repair went someway to rectifying the bulge at the 12^th fret, as the screw itself was adding to the problem of the uneven neck. In the process of renovating the neck I removed the obligatory green felt dampener behind the nut found on so many Italian instruments from this period which I may replace at some point. I also removed all the back varnish and paint that remained at the rear of the neck and on the headstock The neck is now much improved although the twist is still evident which is compensated through the bridge angle repositioning. The guitar plays well after being trial fitted with electric strings 10s for lower neck tension which still generate good volume and projection. An excellent vintage guitar for chording  and finger picking, yet another wooden six stringer back in action prised from the grip of the grim guitar reaper.

A quality hand made five ring parquetry rosette on this Perretti & Figli guitar with most the original label intact showing the Dallas import mark

These Perretti & Figli parlour guitars were imported into the U.K. from the 1930s until the mid 1950s by John Edward Dallas & Sons of London with the label inside these guitars bearing their J.E.D.S. trade symbol. Perretti & Figli as musical instrument makers were founded as far back as 1840 in Napoli and are perhaps better known as mandolin makers. It’s really surprising how little these Italian guitars sell for in the vintage guitar market as they are really bright but mellow sounding instruments designed with steel strings in mind.  Perretti & Figli guitars are in a similar league to Manuel Segura (Silvestri), Elbozzini, Albertini and Fratelli instruments which crop up on online auction sites and salerooms every so often. I can only hope that there will be more appreciation for these makers in the future, after all it was the Italian school of luthiers like Maccaferri, Di Mauro, Busato and Olivieri  who were the innovators of the Gypsy Jazz guitar.

Guitar scale 25 ¼ inches (64cm) Zero fret

Neck Mahogany or Cedar

Floating bridge system bolted to soundboard

Soundboard solid spruce

Sides mahogany with mahogany laminated back

Total length 38 ½ inches (98cm)

Lower bout 14 inches (36cm)

Depth 3 ½ inches (9cm)

Bone nut (45mm) & bone bridge saddle top

Parquetry Rosette

I think this second Perretti & Figli guitar would benefit greatly from a fixed bridge set-up to improve the tone from the soundboard, which incidentally has attractive mahogany inlays either side of the sound hole rosette.  Although these Perretti & Figli guitars which were made in Napoli using similar woods as their counterpart luthiers & makers in Catania, I have to revise my opinion slightly that the Perretti & Figli made guitars may lack the overall tonality of the Catania makers such as Silvestri & Catania Carmelo. Having said that, the Perretti & Figli guitars are far more worthy of just becoming attractive wall hangers, and fixed bridges on these guitars may be a way of improving the sound, but may also in turn detract somewhat as to their originality and appeal to collectors. My own view is maximum playability should be upheld as the holy grail to keep these guitars in the hands of players, for only they, and they alone can put real mojo back into these aging ornate beauties. Update 24/02/2022

Lucas Campbell   Sept. 2019