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Roderich Paesold  P100



Roderich Paesold is a high ranked violin manufacturer in the German town Baiersdorf, and have never made any guitars.
This is the connection to Egmond explained:


Vega

Vega was an American banjo manufacturer, that started in 1881. In 1930 they begun making acoustic jazz guitars and in 1936 they also made electrical guitars and amplifiers. In 1970 the C.F. Martin & Co acquired the Vega company.
In the early 70's the C.F. Martin management decided to extend the range of guitars by adding some lower priced guitars. Hence they looked for manufacturers, or cooperation partners, in Europe. D
uring most of the 60's, the American market was tremendous for the Egmond company, shipping one container of guitars every week, to New York. The competition from cheap Korean instruments, made the American Egmond importer to shift from buying guitars from the Egmond company to buy from a Korean manufacturer instead. All the sales to America ended and the Egmond company found themselves in a tricky situation. So, a cooperation with the C.F. Martin could be a great help for Egmond, in this new situation. At the The British Music Fair 1972, the Egmond company and the C.F. Martin & Co made an agreement, that Egmond would make guitars with the Vega brand, by the drawings from C.F. Martin.

Vega

In 1972 Egmond started to make six models of Dreadnought kind of guitars, based on the D sized series from C.F. Martin.
Until then, Egmond had used fast line production, but now they had to adopt the handcroft principles of making high quality guitars, by the ruels of C.F. Martin. Egmond got strict guidelines from C.F. Martin to follow, to get the wanted result. Egmond had experience making high quality guitars before, but most of the bodies were then made by Hopf, that Egmond had some cooperation with.
C.F. Martin had high demands for the raw material quality and what providers that could be accepted. The top should be of German spruce. The back and sides should be of mahogany from Africa or South Amerika. The fretboard and the bridge should be of East Indian rosewood. The saddle should be of Micarta, the tuners from Kolb in Germany and the strings should be of C.F. Martin. The Vega guitars where meant to be of higher quality than Egmond ever had made before, or else they would not be accepted on the American market.

All models had the top made of solid German spruce. The V-244 had laminated rosewood in the back and sides. The V-448, V-445, V-446 and V-845 had East Indian rosewood in the back and sides, but the V-646 had solid maple in the back and sides.
The Vega guitars were quite expensive, compared to ordinary Egmond guitars. They cost from
360:- to 565:-.

The C.F. Martin & Co were satisfied with the Vega guitars. They looked nice and sounded well. But soon severe quality problems showed up. The attachment of the neck to the body were made by two dowel pins, that were not properly glued, which resulted in most necks coming loose from the guitar bodies. This caused enormous of problems, especially when it came to the warranty claims that followed. The C.F. Martin & Co trust for the capability of Egmond decreased,
which made the C.F. Martin to break the cooperation agreement with Egmond in 1979. The Egmond company now were in a severe economical crisis.


Alpha

After the break of
the cooperation agreement with the C.F. Martin & Co, Egmond started all over in Boxtel, under the ownership of Tolchin Instruments, just north of Best, and there they made the same guitars, with small differences, but branded Alpha. Also a hand full of classical guitar models were added.
They were good quality instruments, having solid spruce tops, solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany necks, and rosewood fretboards and bridges.
Alpha

A684
An Alpha A690 at the final inspection, in Boxtel.

The Alpha guitars were lower priced than the Vega guitars. The simplest classical guitar, the A100, cost €110:- and the top model, the A400, cost
318:-. The cheapest Dreadnought guitar, the A860, cost 282:- and the most expensive, the A12-682 (12 stringed), cost 360:-.




Alfesta

A simpler and cheaper version of the Alpha guitars, were branded Alfesta.



Roderich Paesold

Roderich Paesold is a violin manufacturer in Germany, that started with manufacturing of violin bows and strings in 1919. In 1968 the founder, Roderich Paesold, retired and sold the company to the clarinet manufacturer Wenzel Schreiber & Söhne, in Nauheim. The companies were acquired in 1981, by the British horn instruments manufacturer Boosey & Hawkes. In the 70's and the 80's there were a great demand for guitars, but Boosey & Hawkes had no guitar manufacturers within the enterprise, and the only luthier in the corporation was Roderich Paesold. So, this name were used for the series of six Dreadnought guitars, that were made by Egmond. Basically, it were the same models that previously were made as Vega guitars and later as Alpha guitars, by Tolchin lnstruments Europe BV in Boxtel. Boosey & Hawkes sold the Roderich Paesold guitars, mainly through their American and British resellers. Roderich Paesold are, since December 2004, again a family business, but they have never made any guitars.

Roderich Paesold
Under the Roderich Paesold brand, other guitars than Dreadnoughts were also made, like my Roderich Paesold P100 as an example. Its body is the same size and shape as the Egmond Malaga, the Egmond Bonanza and the Egmond Conga, which also matches the C.F. Martin & Co size 00-14 fret. The Egmond Malaga has, like most older Egmonds, the 12th fret in line with the body, but the Egmond Bonanza and the Egmond Conga has, like the Roderich Paesold P100, the 14th fret in line with the body. The Roderich Paesold P100 is to be considered being a refined Egmond Bonanza or Egmond Conga, constructed to the C.F. Martin ideas, having a glossy high class coating of a standard that never occurred on any Egmond guitar, before the cooperation with the C.F. Martin & Co. It can simply pass for being like a C.F. Martin 00-18V.

Bonanza
Egmond Bonanza from the 1969 catalog.

My Roderich Paesold P100, is possibly one of the last guitars ever made by Egmond, before their bankruptcy in 1983.


P100

P100

P100

P100

P100

P100

P100

P100

And here is a YouTube clip, where I am playing the guitar:



               
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