2024 Mario Grimaldi "1963 Daniel Friederich, ex Ida Presti" SP/AR
Year | 2024 |
Top | Spruce |
Back & Sides | African Rosewood |
Scale Length | 650 mm |
Nut width | 51 mm |
Finish | French Polish |
Country | Italy |
Condition | New |
Exchange | ExchangePlus |
Luthier | Mario Grimaldi |
$12,500.00
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of great guitarist Ida Presti (1924-1967), Italian luthier Mario Grimaldi chose to build a series of guitars inspired by her 1963 Daniel Friederich guitar. The original Friederich guitar of Presti is currently owned by a good friend of Mario's, so he has been able to thoroughly inspect and measure out all details of the original. Although Mario does intend next year to build an near-exact bench copy of the original, the guitars in his series honoring Ida Presti are more "inspired by" this 1963 Friederich, rather than being an attempt at a literal copy, which is what we have here. For this guitar, Mario used a 40-year old spruce soundboard sourced from the Jura region, an Alpine area between Switzerland and France, which is the same area where Friederich and later Romanillos used to get their woods. The rosette is Mario's personal design, only in the central area is he quoting Friederich with the overlapping bean-shaped mosaics. The headstock is manually sculpted by Mario and again, referencing Friederich of course, but not literally in the shape, it's nuanced subtly to Mario's personal taste. Tuning machines are by Alessi. The sound of the guitar is actually quite Friederich-esque - it has a deep, cathedral-like resonance in the box with firm and sturdy fundamentals at the core of every note, giving the guitar a silky, rich and layered quality of tone without loss of clarity. Tone production is a breeze as the guitar is very responsive to the slightest touch - very challenging to produce a bad-sounding note on this guitar! Overall a very impressive guitar from this fascinating builder with such a varied and interesting background with experience and knowledge gained over many decades of dedicated work and research.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of great guitarist Ida Presti (1924-1967), Italian luthier Mario Grimaldi chose to build a series of guitars inspired by her 1963 Daniel Friederich guitar. The original Friederich guitar of Presti is currently owned by a good friend of Mario's, so he has been able to thoroughly inspect and measure out all details of the original. Although Mario does intend next year to build an near-exact bench copy of the original, the guitars in his series honoring Ida Presti are more "inspired by" this 1963 Friederich, rather than being an attempt at a literal copy, which is what we have here. For this guitar, Mario used a 40-year old spruce soundboard sourced from the Jura region, an Alpine area between Switzerland and France, which is the same area where Friederich and later Romanillos used to get their woods. The rosette is Mario's personal design, only in the central area is he quoting Friederich with the overlapping bean-shaped mosaics. The headstock is manually sculpted by Mario and again, referencing Friederich of course, but not literally in the shape, it's nuanced subtly to Mario's personal taste. Tuning machines are by Alessi. The sound of the guitar is actually quite Friederich-esque - it has a deep, cathedral-like resonance in the box with firm and sturdy fundamentals at the core of every note, giving the guitar a silky, rich and layered quality of tone without loss of clarity. Tone production is a breeze as the guitar is very responsive to the slightest touch - very challenging to produce a bad-sounding note on this guitar! Overall a very impressive guitar from this fascinating builder with such a varied and interesting background with experience and knowledge gained over many decades of dedicated work and research.
Born in Filippa di Mesoraca (Crotone), Italy in 1957, Mario Grimaldi first entered the world of classical guitar as a player in his teens, eventually apprenticing with luthier Carlo Raspagni who gave him the bug to become a professional builder. Since 1989 when he opened his own independent shop, Mario has dedicated himself to classical guitar making. His original guitars were based largely on the work of Robert Bouchet, however when Alirio Diaz commissioned a guitar from Mario in the mid-1990s, he allowed Mario to study his 1951 Hauser I which greatly affected Mario's developing style. Years later he would befriend Carlo Gallinotti, the son (and only assistant) of his father, Pietro Gallinotti who is inconic in Italian guitar making history and likely the original inventor of the cedar top! Mario became fascinated with this maker's legacy and style, and even inherited many of the tools and materials from the Gallinotti workshop which he has studied and written about extensively. Of course he credits Gallinotti also as an influence in his eclectic style. In addition to building guitars, Mario does restoration work on vintage and historical guitars, and has held conferences in various Italian conservatories on historical Italian violin making of the 20th century. He has also published the books “Pietro Gallinotti luthier of Solero” written with Mario Dell'Ara, and “Il Legno Che Sing” written with Angelo Gilardino.
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