Juan Estruch 1981 Model 1 "Chet Atkins" Signed Yellow Label, Concert Classical Guitar

Juan Estruch 1981 Model 1 "Chet Atkins" Signed Yellow Label Concert Classical Guitar

The sound of this guitar will rival many vintage guitars in the $4,000-$6,000 price range. Juan Estruch guitars with luthier-signed yellow labels are well known among guitar players. The late great Chet Atkins played Estruch yellow label guitar, used it in many of his recordings, and preferred it to other brands of concert classical guitars.

Atkins' 26th studio album “My Favorite Guitars” featured a Juan Estruch classical guitar, along with a Gretsch Signature "Country Gentleman" electric guitar and a Del Vecchio resonator guitar. Picture 10 shows the LP cover photo of those guitars and “tinkering” Atkins holding his Juan Estruch guitar. 

Between 1970 and 1989, Juan Estruch Pipó, the last luthier from the Estruch dynasty, personally signed guitars made by him. The signed yellow label is an indication of a luthier-built guitar, whereas guitars from that period without his signature were made by apprentices. Juan Estruch Pipó passed away in 1989.

Based on its appearance, this 42-year old guitar was very lightly played over its lifetime and spent most of its life in a closet, which is evident by the absence of nail marks on the soundboard. But even lightly played, the sound of this guitar has the fullness, robustness, depth and sustain that would meet the demands of many classical guitarists. It has a deep, warm, rich and powerful voice that if desired, could also sound quite bright. You can play Villa Lobos, Bach, Jobim, Django, Legrand or The Beatles and Trini Lopez - and the guitar sounds nice in all those types of music. I tried to add a short audio directly from my PC, without uploading it on Youtube, but Reverb does not offer that option.

In my opinion, the sound of this Estruch guitar has as much depth and power as the 1970s cedar-Indian Ramirez 1a that I recently owned, but can also provide more brightness if desired. When compared with my friend’s Yamaha GC41 Grand Concert guitar, the Estruch made the Yamaha sound like a student guitar.

For a vintage guitar it is in excellent plus condition. If it were 5 to 10-year-old guitar, I would call it very good to excellent condition. It has no cracks or structural repairs. From a distance of 2.5-3 feet, it looks near mint, stunning – big, beautiful, dark and mysterious. At a closer look you will find some minor cosmetic blemishes. The most noticeable ones were 2 dents behind the bridge, made by the original 1st and 4th strings that broke during the initial tuning. There was also a 2-mm strap pin hole at the end block. Please see the last few pictures where I tried to show the blemishes.

The guitar was thoroughly inspected by luthier Matt Rubendall. He filled the strap pin hole and string dents, performed a full setup, serviced the tuners and installed new bone nut and one of my own bone saddles. My saddle is slightly longer than the bridge slot; it allows for minor action adjustments when seasons change from humid (summer) to dry (winter) and vice versa. Currently, the 12th fret action is 4.0 mm under the 6th string and 2.7 mm under the 1st string (+/- 0.1 mm). In case the new owner likes lower action, I placed the original (lower) saddle and a couple of Brazilian rosewood shims in the case compartment.The tuners work well, but the 4th and 5th pegs squeak a little when tuning.

In my opinion, the area behind the bridge now looks quite decent (pictures 11 and 13). While installing new strings, I placed a removable tie guard behind the bridge to substantially reduce chances of new string dents (picture 12) and then removed it to make clear pictures of the area. I placed 1 guard in the case compartment for the new owner.

The specs for this guitar are as follows:

• Scale length: 650 mm.
• 53.5 mm nut with 42.5 mm string spacing (+/- 0.25 mm).
• 493 mm body length,375 mm lower bout width (+/- 1.5 mm).
• Body depth 97 mm at the neck connection, 105 mm at the end block (+/- 1 mm).
• Top: 1/4 sawn dark red cedar.
• Back and sides: beautiful dark Indian rosewood.
• Fingerboard: ebony.
• Hard case in excellent condition, possibly original.

I offer free insured Ground shipping for a winning bidder anywhere in the US lower 48. Payments shall be received within 3 days after closing. I will try to timely answer any questions from potential buyers. If you want to check the guitar in person, leave me a message on 917-992-5383.