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Manouche Maestro
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Marco Roccia - England's Master Luthier
Master Luthier who crafted some of the finest
guitars ever produced in England during the 20th century.
A. P. Sharpe (left) discusses a point of guitar making with Marco Roccia in the Clifford Essex Workshop. MARCO ROCCIA, maker of the Clifford Essex concert size Spanish guitar was an Englishman born of Italian parents. He started his instrument-making apprenticeship as a boy; first in his father's workshops in Cassino, Italy, and later in Paris. He returned to the land of his birth in 1927, when he joined the Clifford Essex Co. and became one of the craftsmen who produced the many thousands of guitars (of all kinds) that bear this world famous name. After demobilisation in 1945, Marco Roccia returned to his position with the Clifford Essex Co. and was solely responsible for all repair work to fretted instruments entrusted to this Company. In addition, he produces the "concert size" Spanish guitars which, entirely hand made by this craftsman luthier, Most of the modern luthiers had been content to copy the designs (fan strutting) of Torres, Enrique Garcia, Ramirez and other earlier makers whose designs were accepted as standard, however—Marco Roccia —recommenced making guitars after the second world war by casting aside all preconceived ideas except those of body size and shape and, calling upon his experience in repairing thousands of old guitars by all the world's makers, began again on new lines. The experiments included double cruciform and other unorthodox barrings; barring based on that found beneath the soundboards of early square pianos; barrings without without uniformity of structure placed empirically where the soundbox was proved to be under stress and variations of wood thickness of treble and bass sides of the belly and sides."
Diagrams of types of fan
strutting used by famous lutiuers.
Marco Roccia's gained vast experience in not only repairing old instruments but on his own accumulated knowledge from discovering where some of these instruments "failed" in construction over the years, He being solely responsible for all repair work to fretted instruments entrusted to the Clifford Essex Company.
Louis
Gallo Guitarist Louis Gallo was a respected guitar player,
teacher and composer. He was one of the first guitar players in London to
acknowledge Eddie Lang's plectrum guitar music. He dedicated original guitar
solo's to this style. He also wrote many other compositions for plectrum
guitar and finger style.
Louis was a great
teacher and expert on all things Django. Encounters My guitar is a Clifford Essex 1962 D-hole made by Marco Roccia (no MG46238), and is constructed from the outcome of the purchasing mission made by Marco and Louis Gallo to Paris to acquire Selmer guitar parts - I've spoken with Ray Gallo about this event. I bought it new from CE's, spending much of the Summer and Autumn of 62 at the shop trying it out - Chris Spedding (I've been in touch with him lately) was the shop assistant in those days and recalls Marco building the guitar and the dispute between Marco and AP Sharpe as to if it was to be the 12th fret or 14th fret to the body - Sharpe prevailed and correctly for a D-hole it's at the 12th. Marco had wanted a D-hole but with the benefits of the 14th position. - Alan Brace
Dear Paul, 1960 - I got the guy at "Clifford Essex" (name of the music shop I worked at in London when I left school - guy's name was Marco Roccia) to replace the fingerboard with a new ebony Theodore Bickel, an early folk singer who came to give a concert at Ketchikan High School around 1954 played a Clifford Essex guitar. The company made Classicals, and I remember being struck by the yellowed appearance of Theodore's guitar. It was varnished and I had only seen paler-coloured lacquer finishes (so far as blond finishes were concerned) on guitars. I saw this book in 1960, 'Make your own Spanish Guitar' by A P Sharpe and though it was only about 1/8" thick, it showed the use of the bending iron and some other things I had no previous knowledge of. This was indeed gold! .....there was a mandolin maker/repairer called Marco Roccia who lived in Brixton when I knew him which is not all that far from Sydenham and he used to work for Clifford Essex.... The Clifford Essex ‘Special Order’ in tiger maple and spruce was made sometime in the 1950’s by Marco Roccia I have recently acquired a Clifford Essex Paragon guitar which I believe must be from the late 1920's and most probably made by Marco Roccia. It sat in its original case in the attic of a friend since 1959 and was in a fairly sorry state. I've now restored it and it plays like new. I've spent the last two months trying to find out about the company and have now managed to piece together their history from a variety of sources. One of which was CE Paragon 102 which has a very similar 1930's Paragon guitar in its museum credited to Marco Roccia. I also managed to track down a back issue of 'Acoustic Guitar magazine' reviewing the same guitar in it's classic gear section, in which it states that the number 102 on the headstock implies it might be only the second produced. My guitar has a slightly different 'simpler' Paragon logo and has number 70 on the headstock leading me to believe it was made some years earlier. I don't know how significant this maybe seeing as only a handful of guitars were believed to have been produced by the company. See Photos below. Hope this is of interest. Peter Saunders.
http://www.frets.com/fretspages/pagelist.html#Luthier
A 'photograph' of the Clifford Essex Concert Size Spanish Guitar ![]() construction and mounting of the bending 'iron'. It should be borne in mind that, in use, the brass tube is not 'iron' which would mark the wood.
The Roccia Banjos
Superb Banjos by Marco Roccia "I have always been keen on the Paragon instruments and met Marco Roccia long after he retired from Clifford Essex. I was told that a total of 25 De Luxe banjos were made most of these were plectrum, with a few five strings and very few Tenors". Derek Kindler Clifford Essex Paragon De Luxe Clifford Essex: made the Banjuke (Banjo//Ukelele) in the early thirties. Marco Roccia then made the post-war Ukelele. After retirement Marco made it is believed, just 2 Ukelele's with resonator. One is reputedly still with his family,
ESSEX & CAMMEYER CLIFFORD ESSEX
Going therefore by the company trading titles and
addresses, the owner of a Clifford Essex Banjo should be able to date his
instrument by the table below:- Clifford Essex musical instruments have always been rated among the best in the world and our pre 1939 range of banjos are still in huge demand. We thought long and hard about making our original range of quality banjos but eventually we decided against it. What would be the point? It has all been done before, we needed something new and exciting with a great tone so we made the 'Gambler'. The craftsmanship is second to none and the Brazilian ebony tone ring gives the instrument a sparkle the likes of which I have never heard before. We tried dozens of various tone rings before deciding on Brazilian ebony, I played a Gibson Granada for a while but the tone ring generated far too many over tones, we certainly did not want to go down that road. For two years we have been designing and developing this banjo and we are almost there. This instrument looks and sounds sensational. The 'Gambler' arm is based on the 'Paragon' the 'Gambler' has all the power and projection of the 'Paragon' even without a resonator and it feels like a Clifford Essex banjo. We chose co-ordinator rods because the action can be easily adjusted in a matter of minutes to suit the player. I have lost count of the number of times beautiful banjos have come in for repair with terribly warped arms, usually they have been stored away for years with the strings up to tension. Putting them right can be a huge job, all the mother of pearl inlay and the frets are removed, the arm planed flat and then everything has to be replaced. There is no way the 'Gambler' arm can ever warp because of the way it is constructed. No doubt the old school will moan and groan about the 'Gambler' simply because we have decided to change with the times, but then some folk moan about any kind of change in every walk of life. The simple answer is to play it. |
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