Clifford Essex Maccaferri Guitar - Marco Roccia

Buco

It's really nice that you brought light to this luthier, for me at least.

billyshakes

No doubt you found this page about Marco in your searches, but I'll post it here to the discussion in case any are interested. (Icon shows the obit but there is much more on the webpage). Looks like he might have some interesting bracing patterns on his guitars (though the image on the page shows a typical 5 brace Selmer pattern). Also, looks like he was known to sign his initials M.R. on the underside of the top of the guitar. Next time you have the strings off, if you have a little luthier mirror, you might try to look around and see what you can see!

I also noted there was participation in that article by both a great-grandson and granddaughter. Not sure if you might contact them, but perhaps there is still a build book in existence that might explain the SP. abbreviation, which was your original question. As you say, based on the article information, your guitar was from February 1970 and was #58. Given that #38 was in 4/62 and #48 was in 2/65, he certainly wasn't making a lot in that shop.

One final question...does your top have a pliage? The article shows his bending iron setup.

https://gypsyjazzuk.wordpress.com/gypsy-jazz-uk-home/uk-luthiers/marco-roccia/

G4pei

I have seen that article, very interesting.

The guitar does have a pliage. Richard Bartram, the luthier who set it up for me said that the bracing was much more robust than Selmers he'd seen. The article interestingly says that Marco knew from experience where other guitars 'fell down' in terms of construction so maybe his robust bracing was an improvement in his mind over the Selmers he'd worked on?