Vicente Tatay Classical Guitar (late 1930s), period brown alligator chipboard case.

Vicente Tatay Classical Guitar (late 1930s), made in Valencia, Spain, natural finish, mahogany body, spruce top, period brown alligator chipboard case.

Guitars sold under the Vincente Tatay brand can be hard to date and classify, as there seem to be endless variations of these essentially hand-made but widely marketed Spanish instruments. This is a fairly low-level Valencia-made Tatay, with an older colorful "Vincente Tatay" label generally considered to date to the late 1930s and a hot-stamp on the headstock rear indicating it was made for export to the US. The strip tuning machines are US-made, also supporting this conclusion.

The body is mahogany, with what appear to be solid sides but a laminate back. The top is solid wide-grained spruce. The neck has a grafted heel and rosewood fingerboard with brass frets. The soundhole rosette is simple and the top and back are single bound in wood. This guitar is fairly basic in construction and finish but still has a lovely warm traditional "Spanish" sound. This was intended as a student-grade instrument but its mellow, sweet tone lends itself to folk and fingerstyle well. The action is 5/32" at the 12th fret but the guitar is quite playable, a nice knock-around Nylon string instrument with some history to it.

Overall length is 38 3/4 in. (98.4 cm.), 14 in. (35.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 13/16 in. (9.7 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 25 3/8 in. (645 mm.). Width of nut is 1 15/16 in. (49 mm.).

This guitar shows general wear overall but remains all original and structurally completely solid. There are dings, dents and scrapes over the entire instrument, most heavily to the top where some over-enthusiastic amateur strumming long ago resulted in noticeable pick wear through the finish mostly below the stringline. While admittedly a pretty basic Spanish-style guitar this is still a genuine Valencia-made piece of playable history and an endearingly pleasant instrument in its own unpretentious way. It lives in a 1950s alligator-grained chipboard case that is still solidly functional and adds to the vintage vibe. Very Good Condition.