Daniel Friederich No. 504 "Experimentale", 1979

The Experimentale series was Friederich thinking out loud, and No. 504 from 1979 catches him at his most inventive. It carries the rare guitar experimental designation on the label, a subtitle Daniel Friederich reserved for instruments where he was exploring something new, and it crosses that big No. 500 mark that very few makers ever reach.

By 1979, Friederich was already a favorite of many of the great players, and it is these guitars of the late 1970s and early 1980s that so many people point to as his golden period. During these years he was building concert models almost exclusively with a cedar top over Indian rosewood back and sides, using the seven fan bracing pattern with all cedar braces that he became known for. On this particular guitar there is also a single closing brace on the treble side. The sides are laminated, one of the features Friederich was experimenting with at the time and one he carried through the rest of his building career.

What we love most about this example is the way it mixes aggression with a reserved, almost royal calm. You can pump an enormous amount of sound out of it and get real bite when you want it, yet it never becomes uncontrolled and never loses its class. That is the dreamy quality that people so often describe in the best Friederich guitars, and it is here in abundance.

Sound

There is a lushness and richness to every note that genuinely makes you feel like royalty playing this guitar. The trebles are crisp, bright, and complex, so much so that if you only heard the top three strings you might guess this was a spruce top guitar. The first string is a melody making machine that sings with age and years of playing behind it, and the second string is beautifully pure.

Then the basses arrive and remind you exactly what a great cedar Friederich can do. They carry a warm, throaty hum, like the low murmur of a grandfather wandering through his garden, with wonderful sustain even on the trickier notes. Across all six strings the balance is excellent, with no single note jumping out of the texture. You can sweeten the sound with the flesh of the finger or brighten it with the nail, and the guitar follows every intention.

Playability

The neck is what you expect from a Friederich of this period, a comfortable D-shape that is neither too thick nor too thin, with a 650 mm scale length and a 53 mm nut width. This one is especially easy to play because the action was lowered by the excellent luthier Steven Walter, and it now sits at 3.75 mm on the sixth string and 2.75 mm on the first. For us that is the perfect setup, and the guitar plays like a dream.

The cedar top has clearly been played and loved, and it wears that history openly. Looking inside, you find that beautiful, consistently executed Daniel Friederich label reading 1979, No. 504, guitar experimental, the kind of label that tells you immediately you are holding a great guitar.

The rosette is a particular charm and not the typical one you find on a Friederich. It has a dark, natural wood tone that almost reads as reddish, flanked on either side by very fine lines, and it recalls the rosette work of Julian Gomez Ramirez, another maker who was prominent in France and from whom Friederich's generation learned so much. The bridge is a simple Indian rosewood bridge, in keeping with Friederich's very sparing use of Brazilian rosewood. The headstock carries his classic concert model shape, and the guitar wears smooth Fustero tuners in black and gold with white rollers. These are not the original tuners, but they turn beautifully. The instrument weighs in at 1,650 g, a touch heavier than his lighter 1960s guitars, which is exactly the trade that lets these later tops go thinner and the sound truly explode.

Specifications

Model: No. 504 “Experimentale”
Bridge: Indian Rosewood
Bracing: Seven fan bracing with cedar braces, plus one closing brace on the treble side
Sides: Laminated
Action: 3.75 mm (sixth string) / 2.75 mm (first string), set up by Steven Walter
Neck Profile: D-shape
Condition: Honest playwear throughout. A couple of professionally repaired cracks secured with small cleats; structurally sound and well cared for

Daniel Friederich (1932 to 2020) is regarded as one of the most influential luthiers of the modern era, with his guitars in the hands of leading performers and collectors around the world. Working from Paris out of the same French tradition that shaped Robert Bouchet, he developed a voice entirely his own, powerful yet elegant, deeply refined yet endlessly responsive, and he was famous for a level of consistency few makers have ever matched. The instruments of his late 1970s and early 1980s golden period, this 1979 among them, remain some of the most desirable modern classical guitars ever made.

This is an honest, played-in guitar, and we think the wear only adds to its charm. There is plenty of it: scratches across the cedar top including under the strings, some polish and touch-up work on the back, discoloration on the sides from decades of contact, and plenty of marks along the back of the neck. There are a couple of professionally repaired cracks, secured with very small cleats. Through all of it the guitar remains structurally sound, very comfortable in the hands, and overall nicely presenting. Its played-in nature removes the hesitancy that can come with a pristine, museum-grade Friederich and invites you to treat it as the living, breathing concert instrument it is.