1992 Richard Howell CD/IN

This 1992 Richard Howell is a vintage cedar and Indian rosewood classical guitar from Victoria, Australia, with a slightly longer 656 mm string length – heard in Bach's two Minuets from BWV 1007 played by Alex Tsiboulski on this page.

Cello Suite on a Guitar Made for It

The guitar has great volume, like the Fleta, but a darker voice that sounds more cello-like. We have often thought that this is the best guitar in the world to play the Bach cello suites – and here it plays the Minuets from the first suite.

Playability

It is a pleasure to play, and a wonderful complement to the brighter, spruce-top guitars from Germany and England.

Richard Howell: From Surrey to Victoria, Australia

Richard Howell was born in Surrey, England, and grew up around music – his father was a musical director in London. He fell in love with the guitar as a boy and made his first guitar in 1966. After moving to Australia in 1972 he began making guitars seriously, starting with student models for Jason Waldron of the Adelaide Spanish Guitar Centre. He works alone, mainly with traditional hand tools and finishes, in a small workshop behind his house in Mornington, Victoria.

In the Tradition of Ignacio Fleta

We consider Richard Howell to be the best traditional guitar maker in Australia. He studied the work of Hauser and Hernández y Aguado, but above all of Ignacio Fleta, and his guitars are very inspired by Fleta – yet after years of comparing them to the original Fletas we've had, one can see that he has clearly established his own style and characteristics. Using almost no power tools, he produces one of the most beautiful finishes in the world: warm and lustrous, and very similar to Fleta's violin-style varnish.

Richard Howell and GSI

Richard was the very first luthier GSI took on for US representation when we opened our doors in 1983, so we have a longstanding fondness for his instruments.