Behind every incredible guitar is an amazing luthier.
Meet the guitar makers
Over the years we have cultivated important relationships with premiere guitar makers around the globe. These relationships continue the excellence and dedication that Guitar Salon International places on supporting everyone in our guitar community.
- AMALIA RAMIREZ
- ANDREA TACCHI
- ANDY CULPEPPER
- ANNETTE STEPHANY
- ANTONIO DE TORRES
- ANTONIO MARÍN MONTERO
- ARIEL AMEIJENDA
- BASTIEN BURLOT
- BERNARDO ROMERO
- BERND AND LUCAS MARTIN
- BERTRAND LIGIER
- CARLOS JUAN BUSQUIEL
- CHRISTIAN KOEHN
- DAKE TRAPHAGEN
- DANIEL FRIEDERICH
- DANIELE MARRABELLO
- DAVID ROUSE
- DAVID RUBIO
- DOMINIK WURTH
- DOMINIQUE FIELD
- EDMUND BLÖCHINGER
- ELÍAS BONET MONNÉ
- ENNIO GIOVANETTI
- ENRICO BOTTELLI
- ENRIQUE GARCIA
- EREZ PERELMAN
- ERIC SAHLIN
- ETHAN DEUTSCH
- FEDERICO SHEPPARD
- FELIPE CONDE
- FERNANDO MORENO
- FLORIAN BLOCHINGER
- FRANCISCO SIMPLICIO
- FRANCOIS LEONARD
- FRITZ OBER
- GABRIELE LODI
- GERMAN VAZQUEZ RUBIO
- GIANCARLO NANNONI
- GRACILIANO PEREZ
- HANS VAN DEN BERG
- HERMANN HAUSER
- HERMANN HAUSER II
- Hermann Hauser III
- HERMANOS CAMPS
- IGNACIO FLETA
- JAKE P. FULLER
- JEAN-NOEL ROHE
- JOCHEN ROTHEL
- JOHN GILBERT
- JOHN WEISSENRIEDER
- JOSE LUIS ROMANILLOS
- JOSE MARIN PLAZUELO
- JOSE RAMIREZ I
- JOSE RAMIREZ II
- JOSE RAMIREZ III
- JOSE RAMIREZ IV
- JOSE VIGIL
- KENNETH BROGGER
- KENNY HILL
- KRIS BARNETT
- LORENZO FRIGNANI
- LUIGI LOCATTO
- LUIS FERNANDEZ DE CORDOBA
- MANUEL CONTRERAS
- MANUEL REYES
- MARCELINO LOPEZ NIETO
- MARCO BORTOLOZZO
- MARIO ARACAMA
- MATTHEW CHAFFIN
- MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ
- MIJAIL KHARASH
- Oscar Trezzini
- OTTO RAUCH
- OTTO VOWINKEL
- PAOLO CORIANI
- PAULINO BERNABE
- PAVEL GAVRYUSHOV
- PEPE ROMERO JR.
- RAFAEL MORENO RODRIGUEZ
- RICHARD REYNOSO
- ROBERT BOUCHET
- SAKURAI & KOHNO
- Santos Hernández
- SEAN HANCOCK
- SEBASTIAN STENZEL
- SERGIO PEREZ
- STEFAN NITSCHKE
- STEFANO MOCCETTI
- STEPHEN HILL
- TEODORO PEREZ
- TOBIAS BERG
- TOBIAS BRAUN
- VALERIO LICARI
- VLADIMIR DRUZHININ
- WALTER VERREYDT
- WOLFGANG JELLINGHAUS
- WOON SUN LEE
- YOURI SOROKA
- YULONG GUO
- YURIS ZELTINS
- ZORAN KUVAČ
Currently living and building in Granada, Spain, luthier Mario Aracama became captivated with the guitar at an early age and while living in England, decided to become a luthier, subsequently attending Guildhall University. There, he graduated in Musical Instrument Technology, specializing in traditional classical and flamenco guitars under the tutelage of David Whiteman. In 2003 he relocated to Granada where he learned further from Antonio Marin. In the following years he has enjoyed a fruitful exchange of ideas with his friends Michael Ritchie and Jose Vigil, which has also influenced his style. True to the Granada aesthetic, Mario builds a vibrant instrument with lightly braced tops, based in the great Spanish tradition in the line of Torres. Mario was a…
See some of MARIO ARACAMA’s guitars
MARCO BORTOLOZZO
MASTER GUITAR MAKER EXCLUSIVELY FOR GSII think is that in a musical instrument it is not only the single element that matters, but rather the project in its entirety.
Marco was born in the early eighties in a small town in Italy in the midst of vineyards, vegetable gardens and dismantled engines. He comes from a family of hard workers and learned early in life from his father how to hold every type of tool in his hand. As a child he built wooden machines and disassembled (and reassembled) bicycles. When Marco was 14 years old, music became an indispensable thing in his life and like many teenagers Marco studied guitar and started playing together with friends. During this time, for every 20 guitarists there were 2 bass players and 1 drummer. Therefore, this led Marco to embrace the electric bass. Initially, he borrowed one, then built his own – this was…
GIANCARLO NANNONI
MASTER GUITAR MAKER EXCLUSIVELY FOR GSII evaluate the potential of every single piece of wood.
Italian luthier, Giancarlo Nannoni, has dedicated his life to the continuous pursuit and passion of traditional classical guitar making. He’s been working as a guitar maker since 1994. Since his childhood, he’s always been interested in music at an amateur level. He played the guitar, as well as other instruments. He became interested in lutherie when he had the opportunity to visit the violin maker Contavalli in Imola, where he saw raw materials, tools, and became fascinated by the remarkable smell of wood that is always present in any professional workshop. To follow his dream of becoming a guitar maker, he studied all topics relevant topics including physics, acoustics, and classical guitar construction. He also visited many museums to learn…
RICHARD REYNOSO
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSI
Richard Reynoso has been involved with the arts since his youth, having a passion for drawing, music and in particular, playing the guitar. His first guitar was actually one that had been loaned to him for several years, and when the day came for it to be returned, Richard began the search for a new guitar. During that time he learned there were makers around the world crafting these instruments by hand, and was thus attracted to the idea of pursuing the art of lutherie. Aside from the complexity and beauty of the sound what attracted Richard mostly was a combined practice of science, chemistry, art, physics, architecture, design and the music. His formal studies began when he found a…
See some of RICHARD REYNOSO’s guitars
JEAN-NOEL ROHE
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSIThe idea is to respond to contemporary demand which is to produce a guitar offering greater volume
We are proud to announce that as Jean-Noël Rohé’s exclusive US dealer, we are within days of receiving our very first instrument from him, his fiftieth guitar. Although we agreed to this collaboration about 2 years ago, after I had been to visit him in Strasbourg (at the advice of both Daniel Friederich and Dominique Field), Rohé insisted that he take the extra time necessary to work out a few subtle design changes to ensure that he would be sending us the best guitar he is capable of both envisioning and building. Well, that time has now come and we are very excited. Photos attached are of the actual guitar, which he will string up tomorrow and ship to us…
See some of JEAN-NOEL ROHE’s guitars
MANUEL REYES
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSI
Manuel Reyes Maldonado was born in Jayena, Granada, Spain, but he has long been associated with the beautiful neighboring city of Córdoba, where his famed workshop was established and is now run by Manuel Jr. Reyes was born on July 18, 1934 and just recently passed away on November 10, 2014. We would like to express our admiration for both his life as a lover of music and for his masterful craftsmanship that we were priveledged to experience over many years of playing and selling his passionately-inspired guitars. His instruments, to us, have always been the epitome of the true flamenco sound – one of boldness, snappy attack, great balance, percussive yet creamy qualities (when necessary) – overall, instruments of Spanish…
See some of MANUEL REYES’s guitars
GABRIELE LODI
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSII believe that it is necessary to study and to understand the past to be able to act with great correctness in our job today
Gabriele Lodi was born in 1976, and his relationship with the guitar began very early, as his father was a luthier and player. During school, Gabriele would spend several afternoons a week in his father’s shop, where he would take lessons with his father and with many of the players who stopped by. The sound of the guitar moved him, but he never took his playing very seriously, and at 13 he began helping his father in the shop and spent any time away from school in the shop learning to make guitars. At the age of 20, after a year of military service, he began his career as a guitar maker. He worked side by side with his father…
See some of GABRIELE LODI’s guitars
PAOLO CORIANI
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSII use traditional guitar making techniques, but I won’t discard modern methods and materials if they help me achieve better results.
Italian luthier Paolo Coriani’s career began when he took on an apprenticeship at the Masetti workshop in Modena, between 1975 and 1980. In the initial years after setting out on his own, Coriani spent a good amount of time researching, performing, and building hurdy gurdys, as well as classical guitars influenced largely on Kohno and José Ramirez designs. He began making frequent trips to France after meeting and befriending Cristian Aubin, a concert guitarist and guitar maker who specialized in making copies of his 1867 Torres (interestingly, Aubin was also the guitar teacher of Daniel Friederich). Coming into contact with such a monumental instrument was a real pivotal moment of discovery for Coriani – the incredible depth of sonority that…
See some of PAOLO CORIANI’s guitars
SEBASTIAN STENZEL
Master guitar maker exclusively for GSI
Guitar-maker Sebastian Stenzel is a great friend of GSI, whose works have gained great praise among many visiting players who have experienced his guitars in our showroom. Continue below to read about Stenzel’s rise as a luthier and his support for environmental causes. Sebastian Stenzel was born the son of a university professor of German literature and a schoolteacher in Goettingen in 1966. He enjoyed working with wood from a very young age, and he began playing classical guitar at the age of 10. Sebastian made his first guitar at age 13. At that young age, his guitar teacher suggested he choose guitar-making as a profession, seeing that Sebastian was very passionate about the art. Still, Stenzel graduated from high school with…
See some of SEBASTIAN STENZEL’s guitars
DAKE TRAPHAGEN
MASTER GUITAR MAKER EXCLUSIVELY FOR GSITo me, guitar making is more than technique or science, more than just the finished product. It is an experiential, hands-on relationship one develops over years of trial and error...
For Dake Traphagen becoming a luthier was a very pleasant surprise in his life. When he was young his parents bought him a viola from a violin maker who told him “you have workman’s hands”. It was such an interesting and random thing to say to a young musician, but in the end, he was right! Around twelve years later, in 1972, Dake started learning the art of lutherie with the very same violin maker, Mr. Ed Hunnington. Before learning from a professional, Dake was a self-taught maker. He built his first instrument on the dining room table of his apartment, using a couple of hand tools, and books for clamps. Building instruments very quickly turned out to be Dake’s passion.…