Here are some photos of the guitar.
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Need help pricing/identifying a Classical guitar
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I was given this classical guitar a couple of years ago and was wondering how much it is worth and what model is it. I know it is a Musima and thats all. It seems its a electric classical. I hope you guys can help me. Thank you.
Here are some photos of the guitar.
[/img]
Here are some photos of the guitar.
[/img]- Geeknoise
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:12 pm
The only info known about it is that wasn't made after 1990-1991 - which isn't helpful as the GDR stopped existing by then. It is an A grade instrument, as other, lower grades were sold within the iron curtain.
Musima went bankrupt in 2004. It was composed of 2 companies - VEB Music Instrument Making and Mark New Churches (I kid you not - it's a place name) is still in existence. The 'ma' in Musima and Migma stands for 'Mark New Churches'.
MNC still sell 'spanish guitars' under the Migma label and an English site can be found at http://www.migma-eg.de/en/index2.html
There has been a continuous thread of government and private ownership of the company since inception and they may have early records of their output.
I strongly suggest that you email them with as much info as you can get from the label, any stamps or numbers etc and wait for a reply.
Let us know if you have any success.
As for its value, I would put it in the US $300 - $800 range depending on its tone and playability. It was made with the finest woods available (German spruce). I wouldn't think that the electric pickup is too much of a selling point. If original, then it's probably poor quality and could be replaced by the buyer easily enough. The Migma/Musima East European grade of instruments bring in $100 + even for a ratty example. Probably best to sell it in Europe or to a collector.
There is a German only forum that you can ask typical values at http://www.museum-markneukirchen.de/forum/
Find a German friend.....
This is where your guitar was made in Wolhausen.
Musima went bankrupt in 2004. It was composed of 2 companies - VEB Music Instrument Making and Mark New Churches (I kid you not - it's a place name) is still in existence. The 'ma' in Musima and Migma stands for 'Mark New Churches'.
MNC still sell 'spanish guitars' under the Migma label and an English site can be found at http://www.migma-eg.de/en/index2.html
There has been a continuous thread of government and private ownership of the company since inception and they may have early records of their output.
I strongly suggest that you email them with as much info as you can get from the label, any stamps or numbers etc and wait for a reply.
Let us know if you have any success.
As for its value, I would put it in the US $300 - $800 range depending on its tone and playability. It was made with the finest woods available (German spruce). I wouldn't think that the electric pickup is too much of a selling point. If original, then it's probably poor quality and could be replaced by the buyer easily enough. The Migma/Musima East European grade of instruments bring in $100 + even for a ratty example. Probably best to sell it in Europe or to a collector.
There is a German only forum that you can ask typical values at http://www.museum-markneukirchen.de/forum/
Find a German friend.....
This is where your guitar was made in Wolhausen.
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PickerAUS - Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:06 am
- Location: Australia
No problems. You should know that Musima (GDR) was a distributor as well as a manufacturer with about 1,500 employees.
Now the interesting thing about this is that many of their A grade products were hand built by smaller luthiers around the country, and they were forced to 'sell' their instruments through Musima and their label by the socialist government of the time.
So there is a very very good probability that your instrument was hand made and sold on through the Musima distribution.
As they were also a factory, there were many lower grade guitars/cellos/violins etc built on production line.
Musima, Migma and Marma shared electronic components, machine heads etc from one central GDR manufacturer for their electrics and semi-acoustics, so the combined 'electric guitar' output was and still are, considered crap.
That's why they have a bad name with some collectors but you can safely ignore that for the most part as yours is an export acoustic.
Now the interesting thing about this is that many of their A grade products were hand built by smaller luthiers around the country, and they were forced to 'sell' their instruments through Musima and their label by the socialist government of the time.
So there is a very very good probability that your instrument was hand made and sold on through the Musima distribution.
As they were also a factory, there were many lower grade guitars/cellos/violins etc built on production line.
Musima, Migma and Marma shared electronic components, machine heads etc from one central GDR manufacturer for their electrics and semi-acoustics, so the combined 'electric guitar' output was and still are, considered crap.
That's why they have a bad name with some collectors but you can safely ignore that for the most part as yours is an export acoustic.
-
PickerAUS - Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:06 am
- Location: Australia
5 posts
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