2019 Gabriele Lodi "1930 Esteso" SP/IN

Italian luthier Gabriele Lodi comes from a family of classical guitar makers, happily spending the majority of his childhood helping out in his father's workshop. By the age of 20, he had officially made guitar making his profession and began to focus on his fascination with historical instruments. Because of this interest, many of his guitars today are strongly rooted in traditional design and aesthetic.

This instrument is one of Gabriele's tributes to the great Domingo Esteso, who of course was one of the star workers in the famous Manuel Ramirez workshop in the early part of the 20th century. Esteso would set up his own shop in 1915 and his lineage continues to this day with the Conde family. Gabriele has many years now of exhaustive research and restoration work on these old instruments, including Esteso. And as a maker, Lodi is one of the most informed alive today when it comes to historical knowledge of the minutest of construction details from these early masters. Given this, he strives to build "modern interpretations" of these old guitars rather than strict bench copies. In these tributes, he seeks to bridge the "old-world" (gut string) with the modern era (nylon string) to produce a fully modern instrument that can be appreciated and played by any contemporary player. This is done by building a guitar that is capbable of producing not only the power and projection needed for the concert stage, but also an instrument that has old-world subtlety, refinement of tone and maximal expressiveness. Gabriele is particularly focused on producing a guitar with a huge color palette and great dynamic range, much like the old Spanish guitars and in particular of an original 1930 Domingo Esteso, for this guitar. And from the many guitars we've seen of Gabriele, he's done it. This guitar has the charm, spirit and musical expressivity that many modern instruments lack, yet still has the power and projection that modern players have come to expect.

As much as Gabriele focuses on the sonic and responsive qualities of the guitar, he also has a deep reverence for the aesthetic choices made by these makers of the past. For this model, he chose to respect the subtle and modest inlay work of Esteso from the head shape to the maple binding. This is an exquisitely built instrument with no detail overlooked, and although "used" is in mint, like-new condition. Our congratulations to Gabriele on what can only be considered nothing short of yet another masterpiece!

Orfeo Magazine #13 – Lodi, Bottelli, Coriani, Peruffo