Jan van den Heuvel / Juan de la Montagne

Presented here is the so called 23F model handmade by

Jan van den Heuvel, probably better known as Juan de

la Montagne. Jan was a kind of supervisor for the Alpha

company. Relations weren't that good after they split but

what exactly has happened remains a mistery.

The addition "F" probably stands for Flamenco as

the back and sides have been executed in cypress.

The guitars do not have a "big"  sound but the balance

is good and playability even remarkable. Workmanship

on his guitars is very good but for a real flamenco guitar

I think it is a bit too heavy built. Classical Spanish music

however sounds really good as it "separates" the notes

in a nice way.

The so called "Fleur de Lys" that only can be found

on the Flamenco models up until now. His classic

model, the 23C doesn't have this carvings.

As Jan van den Heuvel also was involved in buying the

woods they were provided with from the south of Germany 

it is not surprisingly the tuners also were provided by a 

German company, named Kolbe.

I'm proud in restoring a crack in the head as this instrument

is  very playable again and will never crack at the same spot.

Almost invisible if you're not aware that a reparation 

has been executed there and the Titebond used even makes 

a stronger connection than woodcells themselves!

This is the 23C model. the pictures have been generously 

provided by Jan Luken, another serious guitar collector. 

Let's just say: "We both owe more than 10 guitars...."

Rosewood sides and back and according to the information

given by Jan the same depth of the sound box though I

dare to doubt that...

Nice inlays and a beautiful rosette. But strangely

enough a rosewood fingerboard as opposed to the 

ebony ones on the Flamenco models. As Ebony is

quite heavy it would have been better the other 

way round.

The bridges are also a bit too high for a real percussive short

flamenco sound and though both guitars have a good sound

anyway they are not the real top.

On this classic guitars the tuners are supposed to

be not original anymore. The Kolbe tuners have

a black mounting plate, at least the most expensive 

ones. The Kolbe company more or less copied the

famous Spanish Fustero tuners that can be found

on almost all top class Spanish guitars.