2014 Annette Stephany SP/IN

A 2014 classical guitar by Annette Stephany, with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides – her Manuel Ramírez model, with a 655 mm scale.

In the video above, Laura Husbands plays Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Tarantella" on this guitar.

After the 1910 Ramírez

This is a slightly modified version of the 1910 Manuel Ramírez owned by Lorenzo Frignani, with the original's 7+2 symmetrical bracing.

Earthy, Clear and Versatile

Annette captures the very natural, earthy sound of the Ramírez, with great clarity and separation of voices and a surprising amount of volume – suitable for any style of music, solo or in ensemble.

Photos of this guitar being built

Annette Stephany: From Mittenwald to Schweinfurt

Annette Stephany (born 1982) is a German classical guitar maker. She was fascinated by lutherie from the age of 14, when she met a violin maker, and at 21 she enrolled in the violin-making school in Mittenwald, where she also worked for the harp maker Eric Kleinmann. She then apprenticed with Lorenzo Frignani in Modena, Italy, until 2013, with a year of restoration work in Bernhard Kresse's workshop in Cologne, where she later shared a shop with Kresse. Today she has her own workshop in Schweinfurt.

Inspired by Frignani's 1910 Ramírez and 1906 García

Her models follow two historic guitars in Frignani's collection, a 1910 Manuel Ramírez and a 1906 Enrique García, which she studied for years, alongside a design of her own. Her guitars are light and quick to respond, with the natural, earthy warmth of those old instruments and modern clarity and volume.