1999 Matthias Dammann CD/CSAR

This 1999 Matthias Dammann is a cedar and CSA rosewood double-top classical guitar with a Nomex core – extremely well-preserved.

A Nomex Double Top

Built with the Nomex honeycomb core between two thin wooden skins, this lightweight and efficient top gives the immediate response, enhanced volume and ease of play that have made Dammann’s guitars so popular with top players. The label is signed and dated 1999.

Sound and Condition

As is well known about these guitars, the sound is extremely powerful and very bold. This guitar is in excellent condition – apart from some wear in the finish, it has no cracks or repairs. Freddy Magdaleno plays Bach’s Prelude from BWV 1010 on it in the video above. An impressive example of Dammann at his best that will appeal to the most discriminating collector or concert performer.

Read more: Orfeo Magazine No. 22 – Gernot Wagner, Pioneer of the Double Top, and the New German Generation – also available in print in the collected edition Orfeo Magazine 21–25:

Orfeo Magazine 21–25 (print edition)

Matthias Dammann and the Double Top

German luthier Matthias Dammann has become a household name in the aficionado community, above all as the most famous exponent of the “sandwich” or double top. In the 1990s he and Gernot Wagner were searching for ways of building guitars with greater volume: Matthias was making tops of two thin wooden skins with thin wooden strips in between, and when Nomex – a light honeycomb material from aircraft building – was discovered, he immediately made a guitar with it in place of the wooden strips.

Barrueco, Russell, York and Tennant

The result is a lightweight top that has been very attractive to hosts of top players in their search for a guitar with immediate response, enhanced volume and ease of play. Manuel Barrueco, David Russell, Andrew York and Scott Tennant are among the many who have performed and recorded on his instruments. He works in Bavaria, where he is still building today.