Pedro Talavera / Salvador Ibanez 1900 / Salvador Ibanez Small Model 1 (around 1900)

To present this guitar I will do the accompanying text in English.

Very little can be found on the Internet and even AI only tells us

the story my friend, Ton Bogaard already wrote on his site:

guitarrasvalencia.wordpress.com where a lot more can be found

around the several luthiers that were active there. This example

certainly is one of them but when you know that a lot of parts

and even ornamentations were ordered at companies specialized 

in this sort of  "guitar additions" it remains difficult to give a

guitar its' final place and origin.

A "luthier" called Pedro Talavera could be responsible for the 

building of this guitar but assumptions are already there that 

these Talavera labelled guitars are coming from Salvador 

Ibanez, Jose Parres or even Jaime Ribot. When the inner

wood work of those luthiers can be studied we can possibly

say a bit more.

To my opinion this is an outer heel form that the Valencian

luthiers often made during the existence of the Salvador

Ibanez workshop and later with his sons.

As I stated earlier sometimes a company gave exclusive rights

to an importer or exporter and to avoid legal problems a kind of

"fantasy name" not really existing, was put on a label.

For a 120 year old guitar it is remarkable that the soundboard

is completely crack free! Cleaning it and maybe give a few 

layers of French polish will do the job.

These are some of the more severe problems I will have to deal with:

A lot of cracks in the back. Maybe veneering could be the solution.

Or replacing? I will discuss that the coming week with some people.

As there are too many cracks on the back I figured the first step would 

be to remove the back and inspect all the glue work, also from the

soundboard. A very strange way of placing the glue blocks, though!

I will come up with more pictures regarding that move.

A rather wildly figured back. Beautiful for people that are less

interested into construction as these backs are more prone to

cracking. The rather "dull" figured backs will hold much longer.

The heel on this guitar however is more rounded as opposed to

the heel on the 1900 Siccas example.

You can click on this picture to study the beautiful inlays

of which only one piece is missing! Exactly this rosette can

be found on a Siccas sold Salvador Ibanez guitar from 1900

As often! Steel strings were mounted on this guitar. 

Never do this as a steel string set will pull on the bridge

with almost two times the force, around 75 kilograms.

A centre inlay that stops when reaching the top.

Most of the time the inlay is all the way up! On the

Siccas sold Salvador Ibanez from 1900, the ornamen-

tation also hasn't been inlayed to the top of the head.

And here is the combination with the bridge that has been lowered 

but can be restored to an almost original looking bridge of that

time. The soundboard has been equipped with a 5 fan bracing.

To date this guitar even more exactly: The inlay on this bridge

can be found most of the time on guitars around 1900. The square

outer ends were a bit later invariably replaced with rounded outer

ends. When the sons of Salvador Ibanez were in charge the return 

to the square appearance was done. To be continued.

This picture has been taken from a YouTube video  that

is about the restoration process of a Salvador Ibanez. 

The slightly slanted transverse bars immediately will

raise questions, especially when luthiers are involved.

The label on the guitar on this picture also dates this guitar 

to be from around 1900 as the exact year has been written 

on this label. As the guitar here above is a so called 

"Resonator" guitar, it has been mentioned on the label. 

It would be better to give my guitar a 1898 - 1902 

label when Salvador Ibanez also was busy on the 

Bajada de St. Francisco 23. But at first I will be certain 

this Pedro Talavera guitar is really coming out of 

the Salvador Ibanez workshops.

And here the guitar, presented with its' back off. 

It will be possible now to check all the glue work

but to prevent future problems some extra moves

have to be made. Though this top is completely 

free from cracks as often most of the time there are

problems at both sides of the fingerboard in the

soundboard, especially when the transverse bar 

closest to the heel hasn't been sturdy glued anymore.

A small second bar will be added. The sound won't 

change. I will also equip the sides with some braces 

here and there and inspect and if necessary, regale

some glue blocks. 

As I've mentioned earlier the slanted bars on the back.

Though the guitar possibly receives a new back in the 

near future, I will securely replace these bars the way

it has been done on the old back. A possibility is the

veneering of a new piece of wood with this old back.

It is always advisable to keep the transverse bars on the 

back (and front) a bit shorter as when temperature changes

are involved they will expand and thus damage the sides.

Only one repair on this side of the guitar, a bit clumsy done

with paper (!) but what is immediately noticeable are the glue

blocks. The alternate placement of the glue blocks I already

knew from the Telesforo Julve guitars but this is even more 

work and possibly could have influence on the freely 

vibrations of the soundboard to my opinion.

Alass, a bit damaged during the back removing process.

I can have it cured as a girlfriend of mine is really good 

at digital repairing this label.

The form of the inner heel block can also tells us a 

lot about who actually built this guitar.

The endblock is much too thin to my opinion as are the 

glue strips for the back. As this is the possibility to make

a real neck reset, glue work has to be done in a proper 

way. By diminishing the distance inner heel / end block

you are able to change the angle neck / body and thus 

you can create a very well playable guitar without 

having to change the fingerboard and fretwork.

OK, on the picture it all looks still reasonable but in

reality I doubt if I can reuse it. When making a neck 

reset the plantilla will be slightly different so I will

need some extra pieces to cure that. Maybe too much

work and what will be the result? I do not expect

a new back will diminish the sound qualities.

Some side reinforcements to prevent problems (and cracks) 

in the future. Also an extra transverse brace has been placed

above the original one that is glued just above the soundhole. 

When that brace loosens it more than often  happens that 

the soundboard is developing cracks alongside the

fingerboard. In present times most builders are placing

such an extra brace to prevent those damages due to the 

tension in that area , most of the time even wider executed. 

Also some soundboard braces have been reglued. Making 

everything free from glue traces caused by spilling glue is 

in fact not necessary but gives a much neater appearance.

I've made the glue strip for the back a bit more wide in order 

to compensate the changed plantilla that occurs when removing 

the back. Making a wider centre strip was an option that came 

to my mind but then all the inner (original) woodwork around

that centre part of the back would have been renewed.

It remains a bit strange: this way of placing the glue blocks

for the soundboard and in fact labour intensive. It must

have been an experiment from one of the workers at the 

Salvador Ibanez workforce and maybe therefore this guitar

has been provided with a "Pedro Talavera" label.

As I was forced to make a neck reset some extra glue

surface on the endblock was advisable to my idea.

Therefore I've thickened that part a bit.

And yes, I've decided to keep the original Brazilian 

rosewood back as it is a part of this guitar and history

around the Salvador Ibanez workshop.

During restoration it is always good to make pictures.

So here the repaired back has been reinstalled, with a

serious neck reset in mind. It is a tedious process to do

it the right way. I had to make some extra tools before 

I've glued the repaired back to measure the distance

between the heel and the endblock that was enough to

finally give this guitar a good playing action in the end.

Here and there it will be necessary to glue some splints

of wood to the surroundings to fill out the 'spaces" here

and there. The slightly wider glue strip for the back 

enables me to reduce that to the minimum.

Some cleaning sessions with alcohol will clean the sound-

board before some final French polishing layers will be

applied. The bridge here has been remodeled as some-

one replaced a part of it but did that in a bit clumsy way.

Salvador Ibanez (Small Model)

Salvador Ibáñez (1854-1920) was a Spanish 
luthier. He made guitars, ukuleles, mandolins 
and other stringed instruments. These 
instruments were considered the finest of 
their age and are prized for their excellent 
quality and impeccable workmanship.

At eleven years of age Ibáñez became an 
apprentice in guitar construction at Calle Muela 
Valencia. In 1870 he started his own company: 
Salvador Ibáñez y Albiñara. 

The company was registered at Calle Cubells. 
Working in his shop were the ten-year-old 
José Ibáñez and Magdalena Albiñara y 
Magraner, from Ollería, Valencia. 

In 1896 he first appeared in the trade guides at 
Calle Ruzafa Valencia and from 1898 to 1906 
his shop was located at Calle Bajada de San 
Francisco. Salvador Ibáñez made bandurrias, 
lutes, six and nine-string guitars and also 
guitars with detachable necks. In 1897 he 
made the world's first double-necked guitar. 

In the period 1915-20 Salvador Ibáñez e Hijos 
(Salvador Ibáñez and Sons) were located at 
Calle Bajada de San Francisco and at Calle 
Padre Rico Valencia. When he died in 1920 
his workshop continued to be managed by 
his two sons until it was completely destroyed 
during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) 
in a bloody street fight, which cost the lives 
of many of the personnel.

This was THE story up until now, however one of
my friends visited Madrid in order to meet some
colletors there and it became clear that at least one
of the sons of Salvador Ibanez didn't die in the civil 
war and that the factory and its' machines were sold 
to Telesforo Julve. A picture of a graveyard stone
from one of the sons from S. Ibanez attests:

DON SALVADOR IBANEZ SALABERT
DIED 21 abril 1967
A LOS 80 ANOS
R.I.P.

 After the Salvador Ibáñez workshop had

been destroyed and with the Salvador Ibáñez 
guitars not being available (and very much 
sought after due to their excellent quality), 
the Japanese distributor Hoshino Gakki 
decided to start making Ibáñez guitars of
their own after years of importing Salvador 
Ibáñez guitars to Japan. They purchased 
the trademark and started production, first 
naming the guitars "Ibanez Salvador" and 
later Ibanez which obtained great success 
in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Hoshino Gakki currently produces both 
acoustic and electric guitars using the Ibanez 
brandname and is oriented at all kinds of 
devices for electric guitars and basses.

Julian Bream has played a Salvador Ibáñez 
guitar. Eric Clapton has owned several original 
Salvador Ibáñez guitars, one of which was sold 
at a benefit auction in 1999 at Christies, 
obtaining a final price of $42,000 USD. 
The guitar was estimated between 3000 and 
5000 USD what can be considered a fair 
price on an auction. Regarding history it is 
curious to discover that the first quality guitar 
played by Francisco Tarrega was a Salvador 
Ibanez before he switched to the Torres 
guitar. A picture of Tarrega with a Salvador 
Ibanez guitar seems to be around somewhere...

As opposed to the front, the back looks 

much better and indeed hardly any cracks 

and that counts for the sides as well.

A nice shot of the brasilian rosewood back though

on some pics it may look a bit otherwise due to

necessary moves in a Photo program.

Dirty and still not taken care for on this picture 

but clearly visible is the Bajada de San Francisco 

label and not Salvador Ibanez e Hijos from the 

later period.

This guitar literally came in parts but as often happens the 

so called cracks in the sound board were no more than the

seams of the parts the guitar was showing. Bigger problem

was the edge lining as that was existing of multiple layers 

less than half a millimeter in width,

The label can be dated around 1900. Luckily other investigators

have found this information sometimes even by frequently visiting

Valencia and surroundings.

The typical placing of the individual blocks to support the

soundboard can be studied here as is the fan bracing that

only exist of three small bars. Only two transverse bars on

the soundboard. In the bigger models a double transverse

bar is placed above the sound hole thus preventing cracks

alongside the fingerboard after some time.

Luckily you are able to study the right bridge model

for these guitars by searching on the internet. Sometimes

people are willing to share their knowledge, sometimes 

not. It is my experience that once you do that you will 

get it back, one way or the other.

The two typical pearl inlays in the bridge, Telesforo

Julve was later known for was already there when

Salvador Ibanez was in charge as is the headform,

that sometimes also can be found on Francisco Pau

and Jaime Ribot guitars (???) You can also detect

the lighter colour part in the bindings around the

soundboard. Those were missing. A hell of a job to

restore that as each layer measures about 0,3 mm

in width. Sometimes you get the remark that you

are making much profit on guitars like this but let's

not forget that it takes hours, days and in fact weeks

before a guitar is playable again.

The coloring is not the most difficult process. Water

stained products can be even thinned with water to

your liking thus making it possible to catch the exact

colour. On a soundboard things are different alas.

A nice and well preserved back that only needs some 

varnishing or French polishing.

The typical way of placing the glue blocks for the 

soundboard to the sides can be studied here. I have

only sen this in Salvador Ibanez guitars but chances

are that it could have been more widely used.

The two missing ribs of the fan bracing can be copied easily.

And the traces of the old ones will hel to glue them in the

correct place. The seams of the 3 piece soundboard can be 

seen here from the inside. Salvador Ibanez often did this and

Telesforo Julve used this way of constructing as well.

I'll include some detail pictures for others to investigate

some specific building marks in other guitars.

This was the point where to start from regarding glue work.

Of course there are good constructions to be had 

in gluing the braces but this method works as well

especially when it is not a "daily job" for you.

Nearly ready to close the guitar again...

This label is dating the guitar in charge quite exactly:

The label has been used in the period 1898 - 1902.

Here you are able to check the dimensions of these smaller guitars.

The dimensions of the new bridge as the original

was missing. Made out of ebony.

And the soundboard construction aas developed by Ibanez.

After the lacquer treated process and ready to use.

The tuners that work in a normal way with their

copper shafts. The plastic or bone rollers were

a much later addition.

And the wurm placed before the wurm wheelas

was common in the early years of the twentieth

century until about the period 1910 -1920.