The finish is incredibly thick...pictures below tell you everything.  I'll be updating this page daily or whenever I have something new to show you. 

I'll say it again and again...DO NOT BUY a guitar from Renato Bellucci of Mangore.com.  You have been warned.  I have every right to say this and whatever I like as long as it is true.  The pictures tell you everything you need to know.  I field the emails...heck, I get HATE mail...I kid you not.  I do the repairs.  Lubos does the repairs.  He calls me sick to his stomach with some of these problems, to the point where he feels humiliated that another luthier would do such things to a customer or the playing public in general.  I feel the same.  I get to review any and all guitars that come through my shop as a Dealer - Buyer - Seller and player of fine instruments.  These are my professional opinions and reviews.  Don't like it...kiss my ass...I tell the truth.  Get over it. 

Additionally, these jobs on Bellucci guitars are very disheartening.  They are also time consuming.  Lubos and myself will only take these jobs on a time basis.  In other words, if we have the time and resources to dedicate to a Bellucci guitar then we will take it.  Otherwise, no go.  Furthermore, these jobs will be no less than $600.00 to $1500.00 in cost, dependent upon the severity of the work needed. 

My feeling after working this particular guitar is that either we work just the tops from now on, or if the back needs to be done, then the sides and the neck need to be done.  It is a difficult task to match poor finish work on the sides and neck to a back that is finished correctly, using proper technique and materials, such as French Polish and / or McFadden Instrument Lacquer vs. Home Depot MinWax Polyurethane!  Yikes!!!.  Thus, a complete finish job on these guitars will be $1500.  Plus shipping costs, of course. 

Here's the point...I don't want these jobs anymore.  But a complete finish job costs exactly what I say above, regardless of the guitar.  I will take these jobs when I can manage it time-wise, but I really don't want them.  Do you need more to know that you should not buy a guitar from this person?  I hope not.

Here's the known scoop on this guitar as of today's update:

1. The headstock carvings were poor at best and way over-finished.  You can see blue pooling of the Polyurethane. Yes, I said Polyurethane.  Renato used this for the entire guitar.  High gloss Polyurethane...Home Depot Style.  Nice....Steve unfortunately paid something over $5000 for this guitar and he got Polyurethane! 
2. The woods on the guitar were still wet when it went thru the finishing process.  As a result of the thick finish and the wet woods, the back finish simply split.  The top was fine, though the finish, again, was over the top thick.
3. The guitar is finished on the inside, just as I suspected.  This because of wet, unseasoned, immature woods.  Finishing will not stop the gassing process of the woods.  It will ONLY slow it down.  You are asking for big trouble if you use wet, immature woods.  Guaranteed.
4. The headstock was very fragile.  Originally, the thought was to carve and drill out the relief, but my opinion was that it would simply shatter.  I went about taking off the veneers and veneering with West African Ebony and Maple.  Pics below.
5. The guitar was sold as a "Double Top".  Apparently, this means gluing 2 thin pieces of Spruce together with no bracings to Renato.  <shaking my head>  There in no evidence of Nomex, thus this is a double top in the barest sense of the word.  Case in point.  The top is on average, 2.5mm to 3mm thick at best.  1mm of composite material (if it were there) allows for 1.5 to 2mm of thickness left for 2 soundboards?  You mean to tell me that two 0.75-1.0mm soundboards were glued together around composite material?  Look for yourself at a simple ruler with mm markings.  1.0 mm is so thin, pushing the envelope of even the best of luthiers (which Renato is not).  Cigarette paper thin (okay...a few papers...hehehehe) is no workie on a guitar.  Don't take my word for it.  Check with any competent luthier and ask.
6. The top is quite thin, thus giving the guitar a tin can sound.   This is a problem, made more difficult by the extended fret board into the rosette area.  I can't really get my hands deep into the guitar to allow for spruce inlays underneath and around bridge area, which will beef up the sound and give it a ringing clarity.  I have to figure this one out with Lubos when I bring it to him.
7. There are no braces in this guitar.  2 Sound bars around the rosette, tentellones and sidebars connecting the top and back to the sides.
8. The body to neck angle is not properly assembled, thus low action can not be achieved, where downward pressure of the strings and heights required for proper relief will not allow anything other than a standard action height.  Anything lower will create buzz and rattle, which the guitar evidences in spades.
9. The neck is extremely heavy and laminated. 
10. There is a slight back bow to the neck.  The truss rod (see below) will allow for correction.
11. There is also a heavy duty truss rod installed.  The truss rod, as I later discovered, is used in Basses.  This to avoid warping, which was going to happen and quickly given anything less.
12. A NEW discovery after taking down the finish on the Back and beginning the lacquer process...I discovered a difference in the way the woods were taking the shellac and pumice for sealing purposes and the lacquer.  Closer detail revealed a difference in the woods on the back.  The middle of the back is African Blackwood, as it was "sold" to Steve.  But, the back is comprised of 4 panels.  The middle 2 are AB, the outer 2 are not.  Not sure what it is, but it is most definitely not the same wood.  It responds very similarly to darker Indian Rosewood, where this is my best guess.  This would have been unnoticeable to even a trained eye given the heavy, and here I mean HEAVY urethane finish on the back and sides.

1. In many ways, I regret taking this job.  It is more hours than I could have conceived in my estimate.  I can not overcharge based on my mistake of estimation.
2. As of February 26, 2010, I have re-done the headstock veneers
3. Scraping of the top.  This concerns the Polyurethane finish...wait til you see these pictures!
4. Thinning of the Back finish, scraping and leveling
5. The Back was refinished with McFadden Instrument lacquer.  A total of 5 coats, each sanded after curing, for a total of about 2.5 to 3 coats.
6. Installing a Baggs pickup system with Saddle transducer, battery pack, etc.
7. I'm now sending to Lubos Naprstek for setup, final scrapings, finish sealer and finish.  The top will be semi-gloss matte French Polish .
8. The French Polishing is done and curing.  She looks fabulous.
9. A new nut will be cut, either out of Ebony or Buffalo Horn - update, I went with an Ebony nut, which looks and sounds great.
10. Final Setup and evaluation when all is complete.  My hope is that the guitar will now sing and resonate properly...we'll see. 
11. I have finally completed this guitar as of March 13, 2010 allowing for a full cure.  The sound is quite good now, where the top and back are allowed to do their squeeze box thing, compressing sound properly.  She sounds even better with the new pickup.  She also looks real good.  I'm certain that Steve will be pleased with the end result.
12. To be clear, I worked my ass off fixing crap that should have easily been done by Renato during the build and finish process.  I couldn't even begin to charge the real hours worked on this baby.  I will reiterate, for me to work on a Bellucci guitar, you will have to consider parting with serious coin.  Tops are at $750.  Full Finish is at $1500.  This includes proper nut and saddle and intonation adjustments.  If I told you that is cheap, you'd call me a liar.  Tough...it is cheap.  Read below. 

1. Bottom line....DO NOT buy a guitar from this person.  He knows how to market his guitars, not how to build them.  As I said to someone else, he knows how to make a guitar, but he has no clue as to what "makes" a guitar. 
2. For the kind of money he charges, you could buy from an American luthier who has sweated his work into the wood, fretted over every detail, and be guaranteed that you will love your guitar or the luthier will take it back.  Why would you support an incompetent luthier in a country where you have zero legal recourse?   Ahhhh, the hope of exotic woods, a pretty face and a thudding sound all for the bargain basement price of whatever he charges, and from what I understand, he charges quite a bit.
3. You have been warned again and again. 

     When you finish reading and looking at this one, please look at this page, which is a Repair and Sale I performed on another Bellucci.  This one has emails attached, which I may bring to this page.  Those emails are about the guitar highlighted on this page.

     Latest update on the below guitar, as of March 2, 2010, btw, is that Renato again calls the client rude for questioning the build on the guitar and refuses to deal with the customer on a "business" basis....not a rudeness factor.  Renato later informs the client that he will not take any more emails from Steve and that he has been junk mail filtered.

     We must do things with our customers on a "business" basis, with 100% consideration for the client who spends their hard earned money on a classical guitar.  Anything else is completely unacceptable.

     I got another phone call last night, Mar 9, 2010, from another gent inquiring about getting his Bellucci restored.  Apparently it is as dead as a door nail, with the finish and woods cracking like all get out.  I advised him against the repair, consider it a lesson learned and move on.  He lives in NJ, so I recommended he take his guitar to Lubos and check out what a real guitar sounds like in the meanwhile.

    Oh yeah...you do business with this guy and you will get burned.  Again, I guarantee it.

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     OK..this is a follow-up to the above. Now I've really had it with this lying con artist.  Somebody sent me a link to reviews of Bellucci Guitars from Renato's site itself.  Here I saw a few suspect comments.  BUT...this one really grabbed my attention as I know this player and have seen this exact guitar.  Steve is a very good friend of mine, living 3 miles away from me, as well as being an exceptional player, and man, does he know his guitars.  He's owned some of the finest instruments around.  SO....this comment is absolute bullshit.  I will repeat...ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.  Another example of Renato's self-promotion:

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Renato: 
What can I say!   Simply stunning.   I received the guitar this morning waited about two hours and opened the package.     I strung her up,  and within 10 minutes the guitar started to sound beautiful.  Deep resonant bases very much like the two John Price guitars I've owed,  but the trebles are much more focused and clear.  A real cross between an Australian (Smallamn)  guitar and Spanish constructed instrument   I suspect that after a few days the trebles will be even more bell like and crisper.   I know guitars very well, having had many different makers over the years.   This guitar is a winner!   I must say this guitar is a vast departure from the guitars you built in the beginning- several years ago.  The workmanship is excellent and sound is much much better.    I like the larger sound port- it blows out air and keeps me cool!  quite amazing.    Also the radiused fingerboard and smaller scale works great.    I'll keep you posted about the sound as it evolves.    April 22, 2008: One day later and the guitar is still getting louder,  the trebles are becoming piano like. 
Steve S., New York, USA, April 20. 2008 steven.schram < at > thomsonreuters < dot > com

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     The guitar was a dud.  Intonation was terrible.  Neck set was crude at best.  Frets were inappropriate, and it sounded like a can of crap.  The saddle was moving in the bridge slot and the nut was cut too low, with the slots too deep.  Braces were too thick, the finish was way too thick (as usual), simply, she was a terrible guitar in all respects.

      Steve did not write this email complimenting Renato.  If anything, it was the exact opposite.  This was the third guitar that Renato sent to Steve, the first being a piece of crap that exploded in Steve's hands.  The story is that when the guitar was so lacking in volume, Steve put a porthole in the top smaller bout.  Because of poor initial construction, the guitar literally exploded.  Renato sent him another.  Same crap, but Steve gave me the guitar to work and sell.  So now, Renato is confirmed as a liar, self-promoter bar none and a cheat of the largest magnitude.  Shit like this catches up with you.  He's caught like a trout in a net.  Utter nonsense from this idiot.  Please do yourself a favor....ignore him and his marketing crap.  Otherwise you're going to be another in a series of trouts he's netted. 

     Before you go off on me (which I really don't give a crap's worth about anyway), think...why would I say these things?  I have lost nothing with Renato.  I have no vendetta, no personal issue, no monetary issue...nothing.  Except...that he sells crap.  I work with dealers, luthiers and equipment people every day.  Each one of us has worked very hard to promote the best to be had on this planet.  My fellow dealers search for the best builders, men and women who have worked years, decades, to fine hone their craft.  Apprenticeships, exploration, experimentation, pushing the envelope, etc. 

     This guy comes around expounding his own virtues, builds the worst guitars on the face of this good earth, pretties them up, bolsters his recordings, writes bullshit reviews on his own site and other review sites, all while telling you that they are master grade instruments selling for the best price???  Huh?  He doesn't even get how intonation works.  He has no idea how a classical guitar works. Finishing with so many coats of polyurethane for too many and obvious reasons.   He has no idea what a neck set is, for christ's sakes?  Jesus Mary and Joseph, the man is so incompetent it belies any description I could offer.  He's built somewhere around 750 of these things.  I've seen 15 of them.  How bad they are (or were) is documented.  This is not a good ratio and does not offer encouragement.  His status as a builder of guitars should be well established at this point.  100 instruments is more than enough to know if you're in the right business.  Over 700?  Please.  It is clear that his builders are not masters never mind pros.  It is clear that his setups are amateurish at best.  It is clear that his finishing guys are following poor instruction.  It is clear that his guitars sound like an aluminum can with strings.  Wait, that's more like a banjo.  I like banjos. 

     I don't like his methods, his guitars and the way that he has cheated so many out of their hard earned money and heck, I don't even want to work on them any more.  Too much recovery time to make a solid instrument.  Time he should make to take a couple of classes in beginning lutherie.  At least buy a book, watch a video, something!!!  OK...rant is done.  Unless I get more nonsense feedback from him or anyone else, I'm done with this.

     BTW, I would point out that Renato has not written to me regarding my professional reviews (albeit in somewhat crude language, but, I'm from Brooklyn...get over it :-)  Ever.  He is more than welcome to dispute me in a public forum.   I welcome it.  Richard F. Sayage

I will add more pics as I find them in camera

Before I got into the meat of the repairs

I put in a Baggs Saddle Transducer for Steve