Astro Meistergitarre, August Strohmer, around 1964

Instrument:
An Astro, built around 1964 by Hans Strohmer, the 2nd son of the company founder. High quality built guitar from the best materials, in the sixties this construction method was typical for the German manufactories. The company still exists as a pure violin making company - in the meantime in the 4th generation.

Material:
Solid top made of fine grained spruce, bookmatched construction. Overwhelmingly beautiful flamed maple back, also bookmatched construction, plus subtly flamed maple sides. Five-piece longitudinally glued neck of lightly flamed maple, with two mahogany strips, including headstock made from one piece. Wonderful varnish with gradient from dark to light brown. Bindings around body, soundholes and neck, partly up to five-ply. Beautiful trapeze inlays in rosewood fingerboard, matching marbled perloid pickguard in kidney shape and reverse style. White headstock with black decorative inlay, three-ply nut.  Open chiselled tuners with cream butterfly knobs. Massive lyre-shaped tailpiece with "Original Astro" engraving.

Instruments history:
This beautiful Astro was bought new in a Nuremberg music store by the first owner in 1964. He was an enthusiastic hobby musician, owned several more guitars and played the Astro only at home. Throughout the years nothing was ever changed, only the strings were renewed regularly. The guitar was kept exclusively in a linen bag and only taken out to play. In advancing age, he sold one instrument after another and kept only the Astro until his death in 2019, but supposedly it had been just lying on the closet for at least 10 years before that. In the context of the termination of the estate, we got the guitar then at the end of 2019 from the son offered for sale and said yes immediately.

Restoration work:
The guitar was cleaned, the dusty interior blown out. Fingerboard and frets were lightly stripped and sanded, the fingerboard oiled, the frets polished. The beautiful and perfectly preserved tuners were refurbished and oiled. A set of new Pyramid Bronze roundwounds and setup completed the refurbishment.

Current condition:
This beautiful Black Rose is now again a feast for the eyes! The old nitro paint has a real and authentic patina, some small lacquer cracks here, and a few tiny scratches there. Since the guitar has never been exposed to UV light for a longer period of time, the black-red varnish has not faded a bit. Wonderful sound, as you only get it from old and well-rehearsed woods. Full volume and very assertive with fast response. All built heavy and solid, all glued joints stable and sturdy. The playability is excellent with a pleasantly flat string action and a modern neck profile. The guitar is 100% odourless and clean. The original machine heads are smooth-running and tuning stable, the nylon axles are intact as on the first day. In this condition an instrument with modern playability and resilience, but above all a real collector's item!

Measures:
Overall length 42.1”/107 cm, body length 20.5”/52 cm, lower bout width 16.1”/41 cm, waist width 10.2”/26 cm, upper bout width 12.2”/31 cm; body depth 2.8”/7 cm, scale length 24.6”/62,5 cm (zero fret to saddle), fingerboard width 1.7”/4,3 cm at nut, 2.1”/5,3 cm at 12th fret; overall weight 2.120 g, string action on 12th fret 0.04-0.08”/1-2 mm (easily adjustable in both directions).