❌SOLD❌ Sergei de Jonge 7 String Short Scale 1999

Here we have another unusual instrument, a Sergei de Jonge 7 String Short Scale guitar with an Engelmann Spruce top and back and sides of Yew.

Sergei de Jonge has been building for decades, beginning around 1969 in Toronto with Jean Larrivee, following an introduction by the late and celebrated guitar teacher Eli Kassner. After working with Pat Lister in Collingwood around 1971, de Jonge set up his own shop in Toronto in 1972 and has been building nad teaching on his own since then, aside from a one year break while living in Holland. Currently his shop is located in Chelsea, Quebec. At that location, he also runs the ‘de Jonge School of Lutherie‘. 

This Sergei de Jonge 7 String Short Scale guitar is in very good, clean and original condition, and was built at his Toronto shop during 1999.  The label is dated ’99 and signed by both Sergei de Jonge and Sagen de Jonge. The French Polish finish is One of Sergei’s specialties – and he teaches this technique in his guitar building courses. This instrument is unusual in a number of ways. Most visibly, this is a rather short scale instrument – 22.4 inches or 570mm, about 80mm shorter than a standard concert scale classical guitar. To accommodate the seven strings, the nut is 2.4 inches or 60.64mm wide. While the top is Engelmann Spruce, a common choice for quality classical instruments along with Sitka or Alpine Spruce – or Red Cedar – the sides and back are Yew.

Yew was used for Lutes during the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods but supply is limited due to centuries of over harvesting. The neck is figured Mahogany with an Ebony fingerboard, the bridge appears to be Cocobolo, and the headplate is a burled dark wood. The body is bound with Indian Rosewood.  The individual tuning gears, with ebony buttons and Abalone dots,  are by Gilbert, 

This Sergei de Jonge 7 String Short Scale classical guitar plays well, has a rich but delicate tone, and is sold with its original hard shell case.

Additional Dimensions:

Upper bout depth in mm ———————-98.8mm
Lower bout width in mm ———————-338mm
Lower bout depth in mm. ———————105.1mm
String spacing at nut for strings 1-6 ——–43.8 and
Spacing from edge of neck to string 1 —- 4.0mm
Depth of neck at fret one in mm. ———– 21.6
Depth.of neck at 10th fret in mm ———–25.23

(Yew, Taxus Baccata, is a hard softwood that has been used for millennia where strength and flexibility are required, notably as a wood for longbows. It is so well suited to that purpose that in a number of European countries, local stocks were almost completely destroyed. It took the introduction of firearms to allow these plants to recover. All parts of this plant, except the fruit around the seed, are toxic. It’s now mostly used as an ornamental plant for topiary and hedges).