Description
Edgar Mönch 1952 – rare lightweight guitar by one of Germanys most famous luthiers.
Luthier Edgar Mönch, born in Leipzig on October 29, 1907, descended from a family of musicians. His Russian mother was a pianist, his father a violinist and bandmaster. Edgar Mönch spent his childhood in Russia, attended school there and later studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Gdansk. He worked as a technical interpreter at the Skoda Works in Prague. There he also studied violin at the conservatory.
It was while he was a German prisoner of war in an English POW camp that he got involved in guitar making. There he met a Wroclaw luthier who showed him how to make a guitar. Released from captivity in 1947, Edgar Mönch began working as a luthier. He perfected his knowledge of guitar making by studying in Spain with guitar maker friend Marcelo Barbero in Madrid. Edgar Mönch’s skill and drive for perfection earned him worldwide recognition. He worked very precisely and self-critically like rarely any other German luthier before. Edgar willingly passed on his knowledge to his students, and world-renowned luthiers such as John Larrivee, Kolya Panhuyzen, Ken Bowen and Joseph Kurek grew out of his workshop. Two months after his son’s passing, Edgar Mönch himself died on February 16, 1977. Segovia, Julian Bream, John Williams, Vicente Gomez and many other guitarists around the world played and still play a Mönch guitar.
Edgar Mönch built this fine guitar in Munich, before he moved to Toronto, Canada. John Williams played one of these guitars as a boy and early in his career from the same period and Segovia had one as well that he used for his daily practice. Julian Bream recorded his 2nd album for RCA on a 1959 Monch which is from the same epoch as this instrument we offer here.
This guitar is very lightweight. It has cypress back and sides and a fine spruce top. The scale length is 650 mm and the nut width 51 mm.
It sounds and plays a bit like a Hauser II from this same period. It has a very charming woody, old-world sound, and would make an excellent recording instrument.
It is one of the best-sounding Monch’s we’ve ever seen. It is lightly braced with Torres style fan braces, which in addition to its age, gives it a loose, warm and very open sound, while maintaing excellent clarity at the same time. It also has plenty of power, even by today’s standard. It is in exceptional condition for being over 70 years old. Apart from 3 small cracks and a scratch on the top (all well-repaired) the guitar is in very good condition.
It comes with the original case and many documents (see pictures).
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