PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Manouche Maestro |
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England's Master Luthier
"Most of the modern luthiers
have been content to copy the designs (fan strutting) of Torres, Enrique Garcia,
Ramirez and other earlier makers whose designs are accepted as standard.
One British Luthier,
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
found beneath the soundboards of early square pianos; barrings 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."
Marco Roccia's vast experience in not only repairing old instruments but also on
his own accumulated knowledge gained from discovering where some of these
instruments "fell down" in construction over the years.
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 Music Co. and was solely responsible for all repair work to fretted instruments entrusted to this Company. In addition, he crafted some very beautiful instruments including the "concert size" Classical Guitars, Plectrum Guitars, Banjos and Mandolins, all of which were entirely hand made by this craftsman luthier, Marco remained with the Company for over 30 years. Grande Bouche guitar made by Mr Roccia. who for years worked at Clifford Essex's shop in London. He was the "specialist" in gypsy guitars, and is behind a lot of the conversions and repairs which took place at the shop. this is his version of the Maccaferri Concert classical. made of absolutely exquisite materials. solid rosewood back and sides, solid european spruce to, mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard, the top has one ancient crack repaired and very solid. fitted with a beautiful set of original classical SB tuners. the guitar plays and sounds outstanding.
I'm pleased to see such a comprehensive website that mentions
Louis Gallo (once
my guitar teacher)and Marco Roccia. I noticed on the page about Marco that his
great-grandson (Jon Paul) is looking for one of his guitars. I have a D-hole
guitar that was made by Marco. I bought it from Louis Gallo over 35 years ago,
when I was his pupil and I have kept it well for years. It's a beautiful
instrument - a testament to its maker - a be just the thing he is looking for.
- Joseph
I noticed with interest your advert for the Clifford Essex Paragon guitar. I also have one of these. Mine was also built in the 1920’s by Marco Roccia, and it has a serial number of 159 on the label. I bought it about 40 years ago, and I have never used it, as I have a Zemaitis guitar which I am very happy with. It has therefore remained in a cupboard ever since. I am now moving house and wish to sell it and I wondered if it might be of any interest to you, or if you could advise me of its likely value and how might be best for me to sell it. I trust that I may look forward to hearing further from you in this connection in due course. I attach herewith a couple of photos of the guitar for your information. Mike S Bracing 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 luthiers.
Marco Roccia 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. He was also a great friend of Mario Maccaferri and did much to promote the 1970's CSL Maccaferri remakes. These were the brainchild of Maurice Summerfield, produced by Ibanez and approved by Maccaferri himself. The early models are much sought after instruments. Louis son Ray has some photographs of his father with Mario Maccaferri which may soon be available. These have not been published before! In addition Louis was a big friend of the Luthier, Marco Roccia who worked for Clifford Essex music shop in London. It was Marco who made 'Selmers' from remaining parts available when the Selmer guitar factory closed. Louis Gallo and Marco went to France to buy sundry parts stock amongst other luthiers who urgently sought after the Selmer residues. Having seen Bert Niblett's 'Selmer' first hand several times, played it and talked to Bert about it, I believe that it is a genuine Selmer, date of manufacture not known to me. The tuners, label (with MM's name blacked out in accordance with Selmer Company practice), tailpiece, headstock 'Selmer' mark are certainly all genuine and appropriately aged. The back, ribs and the neck also look certainly very old and do not appear to have been interfered with. Only the table (Soundboard), with its orange finish looks as though it has been made over. According to the Francois Charle book, all of Roccia's rebuilds were labelled accordingly with an additional Marco Roccia label - he was not in the business of producing 'fakes'. For all these reasons, I believe Bert's Selmer PB is as near genuine as it gets. I never saw Bert's GBSM.
Clifford Essex D Hole - Marco Roccia - Inst No. MG26548 (MG - Maccaferri Guitar Feb 1965 No.48) Encounters My guitar is a Clifford Essex 1962 D-hole made by Marco Roccia (no MG46238 - April 62 No.38), 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.
Clifford Essex Paragon guitar - I’ve owned a spectacular Clifford Essex ‘Special Order’ for many years that is tiger maple and spruce and made sometime in the 1950′s by Marco Roccia. I was interested about your reference to a ‘James Bond Guitar, er Almost’ that was on Ebay with a ‘buy it now’ price of $15,500 to which you made the comment, Give Me a Break?”. I took my chances and lug mine to the NAMM show several years ago in Anaheim to get some feedback. Each time I opened the case a crowd formed with lots of Ooohs and Ahhhs. One gentleman who asked to buy it referred me to an older gentleman sitting not far from George Lowden’s display. He said he was a retired luthier from France and when I asked him if he could help me get an insurance appraisal for my guitar, he took it in hand, gave it a look and a strum and said “Priceless”. He said that he almost certainly knew the man who made it, one Marco Roccia, with whom he had worked with at Selmer in France. I showed him the piece of paper that was in the guitar besides the Clifford Essex Music label, which simply said ‘Special Order M.R.’ He said that was certainly his friend Marco Roccia, and that I would likely find the same initials inside on the back of the top of the guitar, which was how he signed his instruments. When I pressed him to put a value on paper for me he said the instrument was one of very few ever made (well under 100 total) and couldn’t be replaced. He said it was easily as valuable as an early Super 400 (which I have one of) and I told him that I had an old appraisal from a former-Gibson luthier for $20,000, and he said, ‘that won’t touch it, because you’ll never find another like it, especially with the woods, workmanship and the headstock inlays.” So, is $15,500 really off the wall? The link to that Ebay sale no longer exists, so there is no way to see the instrument, so maybe it was a roach, but still, they are quite rare and it least mine is very well made and is quite a sound cannon.
Vic Flick's Paragon De Luxe Vic Flick Plays the James Bond Theme on the Paragon http://www.frets.com/fretspages/pagelist.html#Luthier
Clifford Essex Paragon Acoustic Guitar,
Teresa Roccia Says:- Marco Roccia was my Grandfather – and I have a superb specimen of a totally unique instrument that he made – I am not sure what to do with it as it sits in my cupboard – should I loan it to a museum or sell it to a collector who will cherish it forever? Marco's daughter ( Gilda Roccia ) my granmother - Alfie
Pyne - Great Grandson.
Thank you for your reply if
there is any questions you have relating to this matter feel free to ask I
am currently living with Marcos daughter (Gilda) and grandson (John David)
so a wealth of knowledge around Marcos life is available. -
Kind regards Alfie (very proud great grandson)
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.
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David Hodson Barring
