A guitar picked up from a recycling tip for only of £5 was found to be a century old Salvador Ibáñez guitar valued at £4,000.
The guitar was brought to Shaun Newman, a guitar maker from Devon, who was tasked to repair what he calls a find of a lifetime.
The guitar came to Shaun in a very bad state, with a large split running along the length of one side and other cracks. Shaun was quoted saying: “It was found on a recycling tip in Exmouth and cost the finder just £5. It is the find of a lifetime. I had a look for similar guitars on an internet auction site and there was a similar Ibanez guitar which hadn’t been so well restored and the asking price was £4,000.”
It took Shaun many hours of intricate work to bring the guitar back to life, and he said that it is now playing well. The guitar is said to be a salon guitar , a little smaller than traditional concert classical guitars which are mostly used for playing at soirées, salons and homes. Shaun estimates that the guitar was probably made around 1898 to 1906 in the Ibanez workshop at San Francisco, Valencia. Since the machine heads were brass – which were a trend in France, Shaun believes that the guitar was bound for a player in the Paris music scene.
Salvador Ibanez is a popular Spanish guitar maker who was considered by many as a leading practitioner during his time and he was also credited to have built the world’s first double neck guitar . Salvador Ibanez originals are still popular up to this day, with players like Eric Clapton using the instrument. The Ibanez brand was later sold to Hoshino Gakki, a Japanese distributor who concentrated on commercial guitars. This Ibanez brand is currently well known producing guitars in a wide plethora of styles and prices, endorsed by big name players like Satriani, Vai and many more.
Shaun Newman, a classical guitar maker himself, commented that “The craft of the real Spanish guitar makers got lost to the factory-made modern instrument.”
You can check out Shaun Newman’s own guitar works from his site.
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This article was originally published on Wednesday, 14 March 2012. We’re bringing it to you again because there’s been a lot of interest in this story lately.
I recently purchased a mint, unused, Yamaha Eterna EC-10 full size classical still in its shipping carton at a garage sale for $20.00. The elderly lady selling it said that the guitar was a gift for her late husband and he had no interest in learning to play it, so it was stashed away in a closet for 40 years! The guitar sounds and plays great. It has a real nice low end and good highs even with the original strings. A friend of mine said I could resell my guitar for at least $300.00. But I like the guitar too much to want to sell 😉
Ibanez lovers, I am interested in selling my Ibanez mentioned above, and can be contacted by the email above.
Tony who posted the comment above about selling his acoustic Ibanez was kind enough to send me some details about his guitar.
The one he is selling is a Japanese Ibanez and not a Spanish Salvador Ibanez like the one featured in this article.
It’s still a nice looking guitar – here’s a picture Tony sent to me:
27.07.2013 I too rescued my guitar three times from rubbish trucks destined for the tip. I have had it restored 20 years ago, it is a beautiful instrument. It is an Arch top and back large body with F sound holes and a sunburst finish. For a large guitar it is feather light. It has beautifully inlayed finishing borders. The label includes Mason FN 1881 which I understand is the date the company was established, mine being the 9th acoustic guitar made would make it very old. I bought a new case for it when I had it restored. I don’t have time to devote to playing so have it on the market for sale, the restorer (a guitar manufacturer) was very impressed saying it was a valuable antique but I haven’t had it valued to date.
The label “Mason FN 1881” comes from the Japanese Ibanez brand.
The brand actually began in 1929 when the Japanese musical instrument company Hoshino Gakki (founded in 1908) began importing Salvador Ibáñez guitars – so neither the company nor your guitar dates from 1881, but it’s an understandable mistake to make and you’re not the first person to be confused about this.
Your guitar could not have been made before 1935 which is when Hoshino Gakki first began making guitars, even then your guitar must have been made much later because the guitars they made at that time were Spanish Guitars, not Archtop Guitars – that said, it’s possible your guitar was built in the 1950s or 1960s, but not earlier than that.
I have no 10. These guitars date from 1958 and care Japanese
If anyone knows when that label dates from please post here – I’d be quite interested to find out myself.
Wow! What a find!!! I’d love to get my hands on it to play if for only a half hour :))