”Da grandi appassionati di Art Nouveau quali siamo, non potevamo non dedicare un canto d’amore alle bellissime chitarre Coletti.
Lorenzo
Martin Coletti was one of the companies present in the Schönbach area, a small village in the Czech Republic which is now called Luby and is located a few kilometers from its German counterpart, Markneukirchen (among other things, the birthplace of the famous CF Martin).
Many Germans lived and worked in the Schönbach area, producing high-quality instruments and, in the 1930s, that was the main center of Central European guitar production: their brands (including Radiotone, Ridgmount, Avalon and Martin Coletti but also Franz Mettal, Anton Bräuer, Cremona, Taco, Mestan, Primus, Albo and who knows how many others) were distributed by the Anglo-Saxon Dallas.
After the end of the war, the Germans were lead to the exit door and the Czechs changed the name of the city, resurrected the instrument manufacturers and began the production of cheap instruments, made with low quality materials and scarce attention to sound and playability. But this is another story and of little concern to us because now we will focus on the splendid Coletti, built to proudly rival the “pompous” American sisters.
The G61C model Coletti featured in these images are hand-carved from Spruce and Maple while the necks are made of European Beech with mother-of-pearl block inlays. Frets and bridges are modeled in Ebony and the finish is the classic nitrocellulose, which over time only adds charm to our beloved vintage instruments. The beautiful wood inlays of the headstock, the beautiful 3-in-line nickel-plated tuners and the classy celluloid pickguards with a “C” overhead, complete the charm of these splendid jazz ladies. And when we arrive here, we sit in religious silence to admire these wonders, letting the images speak.
For more information on Schönbach’s instruments, a visit to Tomas Dvorak’s website (http://schoenbach.webnode.cz/) is recommended.
