2023 Paula Lazzarini CD/CO

Originally from Argentina, Paula Lazzarini had been working out of her workshop in Cremona, Italy for several years. However, she recently moved to her current location in Turin, where she teaches at a nearby musical instrument-making college called Accademia Liuteria Piamontese San Filippo. In this college, she teaches a course called "Stringed Instrument Construction". We first met Paula in 2021 when she took the FIRST prize in the 4th International "Antonio Marin Montero" Guitar Building Competition in Granada, Spain.

For this guitar, Paula has chosen some really phenomenal materials for the back and sides - a striking set of cocobolo with lighter-colored sapwood flourishes, absolutely breathtaking. To complement this, she used richly flamed maple for the back center strip as well as for the purflings. Her bold, almost "architectural" aesthetic can be seen in the head design and in the highly symmetrical inlays in her mosaic work in the rosette and tie-block. Internal bracing is primarily inspired by Daniel Friederich, however for this guitar Paula was trying to achieve a more "cello-like", depth and richness and so adjusted the bracing of the back with four, evenly spaced transverse bars which alters the internal resonance of the box to her taste. The resulting sound is thick and full-bodied in the overtone content of every note while retaining great clarity and separation/balance between notes. This instrument is everything the winning instrument was, and more. Once again we are thrilled to have this here at GSI and look forward to many more instruments from this award-winning luthier in the future.

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Photos of this guitar taken during construction