c.1965 Favilla F-5 Guitar

This is a customer's Favilla F-5... their take on the student "but good for pros," all-mahogany, smaller-bodied guitar. It's essentially the same size and has a similar feel in the lap to a Gibson B-25 or LG-0. The tone on this one, however, is far better than the ladder-braced LG-0s which tend to destroy themselves over time. This is due to the use of fan bracing (similar to that found on European guitars -- Hagstroms, Levins, Bjartons from Sweden, and older Hofners from Germany) which gives it an open, loud, direct tone with lots of guts and sustain.

This particular Favilla has been refinished, has an unoriginal bridge (it had a crudely-installed plastic saddle, but I replaced it with a new bone one and righted some of the ugly saddle slotting), and has an unoriginal pickguard.

Zero fret, old headstock repair (sturdy but ugly) and also some poorly-installed (but functional) sealed Grover-style tuners.

Rosewood fretboard, MOP dots in board. The neck profile feels very Gibson but the board profile is flat, so it feels something like a mix of an older style with a newer style neck cut.

Rosewood bridge.

Notice how sloppily those tuners were installed! I'd far prefer the original Klusons to these heavy fellas, but even with the bad install, they work just fine.

This is a darn good guitar for the value on these things. Loud, bright, crisp, super-responsive, and easy to handle.