Hohner Contessa HC394
This guitar is a 'garage sale special'. As far as I know, it had been in storage, unplayed, in a ratty looking case for many years before the previous owner sold it. It was obviously a classical guitar but someone had strung it with steel strings. By the time I looked at it the strings were old and corroded and the guitar had dust and grime caked on it.
According to the label on the inside of guitar, it was made in Japan and built in April of 1974. The top of the guitar appears to be cedar while the sides are most likely some kind of mahogany-ish laminate. The fretboard is rosewood and slightly pitted. There is some wear on the frets, probably from some steel string usage, but it isn't too severe. The nut and bridge are plastic and also exhibit some wear. The body has several small dings and scratches, the most notable being the former owner's name scratched into the back and a couple of small chunks of wood missing from around the soundhole. The neck also has a few dings and the top of the headstock is chipped off.
To start the rehab of the guitar I cleaned it up using guitar polish and removed the old steel strings. Someone had also taped on paper 'dot markers' and note/chord markers. I removed these using an old thin pick as a scraper. It took a while but the guitar cleaned up nicely. I replaced the strings with D'Addario Pro-Arte EJ45 Normal Tension strings. The guitar creaked a bit as it felt tension come back to its body but seemed to handle it OK. The nut and bridge have done well so far and haven't needed to be replaced. At first keeping it in tune is a pain but eventually it got settled in and tuning stability improved considerably.
The sound from the guitar is good and rich sounding, at least for an older lower end, guitar. The feel of it is also good although it's quite a switch from my electrics. It should be fun to play in an acoustic jam.
Here's a side view of it. You can see both the wood grain, which polished up nicely, and the chipping around the soundhole here.
Sounds
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The sound clip is about 17 seconds of a half-strummed, half-fingered, acoustic version of a commonly requested song. The song was recorded using Audacity, my Behringer EuroRack MX 602A mixer and a cheap Radio Shack mike.
