This is a very interesting guitar that I chanced upon!
For those who don't know, Salvador Ibanez was a Spanish Luthier (1854-1920). He made guitars and other instruments for the majority of his life. Starting as an apprentice at aged 11, he had his own operation around 1870/80 and I think continued building up until his death in 1920.
Though it is worth noting that not every instrument was made by himself, he had a team of luthiers working for him at various points of his operation and his sons joined the operation from 1915, known then as 'Salvador Ibanez e Hijos' (Salvador Ibanez and Sons). Based on the label, this guitar was made at the address 'Bajada San Francisco 23', and it is an early iteration of the label. I have spoken to another luthier who has a lot of experience with Salvador Ibanez instruments, and he has given me the rough likely dating of 1898-1906. There is also a large 'S' visible on the inside, which may mean it is one that Salvador himself worked on, although I could not say for certain. I also noted another pencil mark which looks roughly like '1900' which is in line with my rough dating, but again it is too faint to be certain. Was a sad ending for the Salvador (and sons) name, the workshops burned down in 1937 and the sons were killed. The Ibanez name lives on though, bought by the Japanese company which survives to this day, making primarily electrics and some steel string acoustics.
This thing is in a real mess and clearly had some bad butcher attempts at previous repairs. Which you can see in the photo to the right, it is anyones guess what those chunks of wood are trying to achieve...
The Spruce top has some serious damage, I popped the back to get access (the Rosewood back needs quite a bit of work too).
I've only just started my work, mainly focused on gluing up a lot of the top to try and stabilise it. I have also done quite a lot of work on the back, cleaning it up and regluing the braces. Couple of cracks in the back that needed glued too.
I will need to piece some spruce in the top and there is significant damage to the outer purfling edges on the top. This will be an ongoing project.
Needs some significant work to get it up and playing again, going to try and retain as much originality as I can! It will need new machine heads as it didn't come with any. But the majority of the wood will be original. I have the original bridge too, which I can salvage.
Will try to update my blog here with updates as I go! Here is a bunch of photos of this unique (120ish year old) antique instrument, once the work is complete I will be looking for a buyer... so keep an eye out for it getting nearer completion if you may be interested!
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