2023 Christoph Sembdner CD/EE

For many years, Christoph Sembdner's guitars have been structurally based on the famous 1973 Romanillos of Julian Bream. For this guitar he retained much of this but worked in his own particular "lattice" system for the soundboard bracing. He achieves a beautiful, thick and rich sound that remains quite traditional sounding, the lattice really giving it a boost in volume and speed of response. Sembdner also has his own system of construction for the back and sides, including the use of double-sides for added projection and volume. The guitar also has a very wide palette of tonal colors both in the trebles and basses, making this a very agile guitar for the player seeking those Bream-esque shifts of timbre with only the slightest modification of the hand position or angle of right hand attack. Although volume and projection on this guitar are excellent, he builds with balance and sustain as top priority. The sound is very solid and clear, with every note able to sing beautifully. The aesthetic design is handsomely elegant and clean with some striking materialy - most notably a dramatically figured set of exotic ebony for the back and sides. Tuning machines are Barnett tuners out of Berlin. The handsome appearance combined with its lush sound, make this is an excellent concert guitar in all aspects.

Photos of this guitar being built.

Christoph Sembdner has been building guitars since 1990 and has been teaching lutherie at the University of applied Sciences Zwickau in his hometown of Markneukirchen, Germany. In addition to this post, which he has held since 1999, he was invited by the private vocational school in Moss/Norway in 1995 to establish a guitar department and take over the task of teaching guitar making. His building style is greatly influenced by Torres/Hauser patterns that he learned while attending Romanillos masterclasses, even though he now works with his own personalized lattice system for some of his guitars. He currently lives and works in the beautiful "Bachstadt" of Weimar, Germany.