Japanese Luthier Hironori Fukuda builds a new guitar for GSI

Japanese luthier Hironori Fukuda has completed a new classical guitar for GSI, and it will be arriving at our store soon.

GSI first encountered Hironori's work at the 3rd International Antonio Marín Montero Guitar Building Competition in Granada in 2019, where he earned Third Prize. He returned for the 7th edition of the competition in 2024 and took First Prize — a meaningful milestone in an already distinguished career.

Hironori builds in the traditional Spanish manner, working with natural materials and time-honored techniques throughout. This new instrument features a European spruce soundboard paired with European maple back and sides. It's a combination that brings clarity and projection to his characteristically refined construction. He uses only air-dried tonewoods, hides glue throughout, and finishes with shellac applied by traditional French polish over a pumice pore fill.

His aesthetic remains elegant and restrained: carefully crafted rosettes in naturally colored woods, tasteful inlays, and his signature bridge with squared ramps — an architectural detail that gives each instrument a quietly distinctive presence.

Sneak peek photos of the finished guitar are below for an early look.