Last week when I was visiting with the folks at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, we had a surprise visit from Frank Koonce. Frank is an instructor at Arizona State, and is the proud owner of what may well be the world's oldest surviving full size guitar. Believe it or not, this thing is over 400 years old!
The guitar has been attributed to Belchior Diaz, a Portugese builder who probably made the instrument around 1590.
Frank was gratious and allowed us to handle the guitar, and answered all our questions as we checked out this amazing instrument:
That's s head instructor, John Reuter, standing in the background.
Instead of regular metal frets, it has tied ligatures like those on a lute:
The instrument has been through a lot of restoration over the years, including a top replacement:
It seems hard to believe, but this may be the original parchement rose:
The multi-ribbed back and the neck are ebony with ivory inlay and the top is spruce.
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