Classical Guitars - Kent Guitar Classics

Karel Dedain of Gent, Belgium

• Year:

  2014

• Body:

  Rosewood - quarter-sawn, straight-grained and 30 years old - with hawthorn bindings. The lack of back centre-strip draws attention to the rich appearance of the timber. All shellac french-polished to very high standard.
  Body length:- 458 mm.
  Top bout:- 247 mm wide & 85.5 mm deep.
  Waist:- 205 mm
  Bottom bout:- 330 mm wide & 88 mm deep.

• Front:

  European spruce - a silky, quarter-sawn top from the Italian Dolomiti - with a tasteful, beautifully-executed rosette (not to the Arias original design), rosewood bridge with bone-framed tie-block.

• Tuners:

  Geared pegs by 'Pegheads' of USA - looking like the traditional simple pegs but with internal gearing that makes them so easy to use.

• Scale:

  65cm with 18 frets, as the original, on an ebony fingerboard

• Neck Width:

  50mm at the nut with 42.5mm string spacing.

• Weight:

  1115 grams

• Condition:

  New - and looking terrific.
  All shellac french-polished to very high standard.

• Comments:

  The owner of the original 1889 Vicente Arias is in Belgium and kindly allowed Karel Dedain access so that he could make this replica copy. When I first played this guitar, i.e both the original and this copy, side-by-side, the experience of the first few notes and chords was a shock. The weight, immediacy and rounded tone of the sound was very surprising and just makes you smile as you think 'Where does all that sound come from?'
  This Dedain copy has such a similar weight, balance and body air resonance to the original yet it has more vitality and energy given that the original is allowed to be a little fatigued after 125 years. Nevertheless the character of the sound and the playability are very close to the 1889 original. Karel Dedain has reproduced the vital thicknesses, the doming of top and back and come within 50 grams of the original.
  Vicente Arias guitars are quite scarse and only around 60-70 surviving instruments are known to exist. The vast majority of the originals are all quite different from one another; some being very simple in decoration; others being quite ornate. They were always small-bodied guitars yet with remarkable quantity and quantity of sound.
  If you seek something a little different yet quite remarkable, the Karel Dedain instrument is sure to please.

  Karel Dedain - Click here to find out more about this maker

• Price:
  Sold August 2014. Enquire for another being built for us.
• AVAILABILITY
  SOLD + 44 (0) 1732 453 523 Contact via Email

  Available from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. UK time.