2016 François Leonard CD/IN

A 2016 classical guitar by Lorient luthier François Leonard, with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides – our second cedar-top guitar from him.

In the video above, Taso Comanescu and Yoshika Masuda play Falla's "Nana".

From Newark and Lakewood to Lorient

François brings together what he learned from English luthiers at Newark, from building at Lakewood Guitars in Germany with his good friend Tobias Berg, and from occasional mentoring by Dominique Field.

A Darker Voice

Like his spruce guitars, it has punch and a full-bodied, juicy tone across the range, but the cedar gives each note added darkness and warmth. The sound is stylish and expressive, with power for any concert, and the double sides and fine French polish reflect the French school of Friederich and Field.

François Leonard: A French Luthier in Lorient

François Leonard was born in Nantes, France, in 1973. After studying the guitar for a few years he moved to England in 1995, at 22, to learn guitar making at the Newark School under Roy Courtnall, and stayed five years, also building traditional instruments such as the Swedish nyckelharpa and the hammered dulcimer. In 2006 he set up his own workshop in Lorient, Brittany.

Lakewood, Tobias Berg and Dominique Field

Around 2000 he moved to Germany, where for five years he worked at Lakewood Guitars alongside Tobias Berg, in charge of body construction on several thousand guitars – learning above all how to choose tops and hear their thicknesses – and where Michel Brück taught him French polishing. In the French tradition of Daniel Friederich and Dominique Field, whom he visits regularly, he builds with double sides, and he meets with acousticians to add science to the intuitive side of his craft.