This Bruce West Brazilian Rosewood classical guitar was built during 1980 at Bruce’s shop near Lake Simcoe, south of Barrie Ontario. Bruce West has been involved in musical instrument building for most of his life, starting at age 12 with a bench at Geo. Heinl’s workshop in Toronto. In his teens he also played guitar for Ronny Hawkins!
Brazilian
The Cromwell G-4 archtop guitar was built by Gibson from 1935 to 1939 and sold to various retailers and catalog distributors. Inside this guitar, visible through the bass F-hole is a well-preserved yellow label reading ‘New York Band Instrument Company’ indicating that it was sold by that company, at the time a large music store in New York City, but gone by 1950.
Introduced in 1948 and built until 1971, the Gibson A40 was offered as a high quality entry level instrument. This example dates to 1957 and is in overall good condition, plays well and has a bright yet warm tone with plenty of volume and projection. The original fibre case is included, as well as a more recent hard shell case.
Here we’re looking at a Guild Capri CE-100D from 1965 in overall good condition, looking like it has been used as intended over the years. Built from 1956 until 1982, the Guild Capri CE-100D was a fully hollow body archtop electric with a Florentine cutaway and a pair of pickups. The CE-100D was the Double pickup version of the single-pickup CE-100; at first, Franz pickups were used, then DeArmond, and in 1963 Guild’s new Anti-Hum pickups were fitted.
Introduced in August 1964 and built until 1982, the Fender Mustang was positioned between the student model DuoSonic and the professional grade Telecaster. Most Mustangs have a 24 inch scale length, but a few were built with a short 21.5 inch scale, all with Rosewood fingerboards. Until 1969, the body was a simple Poplar slab body, and then it received standard – patented – Fender contours. Until 1968, the finish was nitrocellulose lacquer; at that point the finish shifted to the new, heavier polyester coatings.
This instrument has sold
MORE →This Bruce West Classical guitar, bearing the serial 213 IHS and built during 2021 in Sterling, Ontario features a hundred year old Swiss Alpine Spruce top and Brazilian Rosewood sides and back. These guitars tie into an interesting and pivotal period of Canadian luthiery history.