Very Rare / 1938 Calace Arch Top Guitar / 10 Made / Offers Welcome

  Raffaele Calace, who's image is on the label inside this guitar, died in 1934 and this beautifully crafted guitar was made by his son Guiseppe and daughter Maria in 1938. A recent article states that 10 were made and 3 have been located. This would be the 4th. Inside, though faded, you can see the image of Raffaele, written signature stating "Calace Guitar" and the date 1938. There is a wealth of other information on the label including the shop's address and other details in Italian.

The guitar I'm offering is all original and highly playable. It has low fast action and is a lot of fun to play acoustically and I played it for a while with a "monkey on a stick" pickup and it sounded fantastic..
                                                        Tale of the Tape
17 1/2" Lower bout
12 1/2" upper bout

1 5/32" thickness of Neck at 5th fret v neck widest point where thumb and finger would contact fret when playing

1 49/64" head nut width

24 3/4" scale

3 1/2" body thickness

Very low action:
.02 high E at first fret
.07 high E at twelfth fret

One look at that incredible custom bridge and pick guard hand crafted by Mr. Calace confirms this is a rare historic instrument. The F hole design is retro beautiful and unique from an artistic perspective as is the rest of this instrument design.

The Calace family is one of the oldest mandolin artisan instrument making families in the history of music.

... They are quickly found in text books on the subject and are respected worldwide.

Very rare Archtop with suspiciously familiar Gibson visual design elements including headstock and tuners (tulip). Who was truly first with these design elements?

• 10 of these made
• 3 others currently found
• Made in 1938 by the creators of the modern day mandolin
• The original lable inside references Raffaele Calace (1863-1934) musician and esteemed luthier/designer of this time period
  

Pronounced: Calach"a" (long A sound as in word "day")
 
Made by the world famous Calace family, mandolin innovators and designers since the 1800s in Italy. This family is referenced in many musical instrument design narratives as founding family creators of mandolins and similar innovative stringed instrument designs...... They produce world class mandolins to this day.

I'm always looking for the unique, uncommon, and rarest of arch tops as this obsession has led me to some exciting and sometimes one of a kind finds. My goal is to play, improve the condition of, and experience as many different arch tops as possible before moving them on to continue their legacy.

This guitar was previously in the possession of a high quality Southern vintage instrument shop for which I'll share details to qualified buyers with serious inquiries. It was the only arch top in their impressive stable of collectible American guitars and stood out as an obvious exception to the flat tops and other classic vintage models in their stock.

It is by no means in mint condition but is enjoyable to play and amazing to look at in relation to detail and design. There are two relatively large but professionally repaired cracks on the top of the guitar as documented in the photographs which are well stabilized by internal work done by the shop when bringing up to spec. Research indicates that less than 100 and a recent article states "10" of this model were manufactured with the label inside referencing model of Raffaele Calace and anno 1938. The label is intact, large, and contains information that I'm unable to capture beyond that mentioned in this text with most statements in Italian.
The information on the label also includes the address of the shop where it was built.
If you are looking for a very rare guitar made by one of the most famous musical instrument innovators of the Italian school, you've found what you've been looking for. I have never seen another like it. There are some characteristics here that resemble design elements used by Gibson in archtop models. It begs the question of who was first with the distinct headstock design and tulip style tuners?

This is a lightweight guitar weighing in at 5 lbs. It has a "V" profile neck allowing your thumb to comfortably pivot with minimum contact with the neck and the frets have plenty of play left and intonation is accurate. It's easy to fret the strings for both chords and melody for the entire length of neck. These original Gibson style tuners hold tune and turn easily for adjustment. There are no worries here for the guitar mechanics or operation. The elaborate inlay on the original carved wood bridge is a design point contributing to the overall beauty of this instrument.

There are also lines of accent in soft pastel green on the headstock and surrounding the carved wooden pickguard. I've never seen anything like it.

This is a great collectors or players instrument still doing the job after 77 years of play.

Please contact with questions and I'll be adding more information and video as time passes.

Is it in the cards for you to be the next step in this Calace guitar's musical journey heading to the next 100 years of beautiful music?

Play while you can,
Bluzman Music

Lee McCabe