2024 Moonseok Choi "Nomad" SP/AR

This guitar is named "Nomad" by its maker due to the fact that construction began in Malmö, Sweden, and was completed in Westervoort, Holland with a "side-trip" to Korea where he completed the varnishing and set-up work. Soon he will be re-locating to Scotland, where our next guitar will be built! Moonseok told us that although it's not easy to move across different countries while building a guitar, this journey still inspired him by experiencing such diverse cultural and historical aspects of these countries, which he feels had a very positive impact on the building of this guitar.

As its name implies, Moonseok attempted to make this guitar based upon several different and diverse design ideas. In particular, it references the designs of Bouchet’s early guitars and the work of Daniel Friederich to create his own unique design. In fact, he even used the thicknessing and bracing pattern taken from a 2009 Friederich. Aesthetically there is much variety as well. Like our last guitar from him, this guitar is inspired by its birthplace in the coastal town of Malmö, Sweden and features several aspects of the sea. This includes the use of decoratvie "fish" shapes in the central mosaic of the rosette and an emerald stone in the tie-block which with it's green color and 3D relief, resembles a droplet of water. The use of burled wood for the head veneer and tie-block reminds him of the living "sea oak" seaweed that is visible when looking into the depths. For sound, Moonseok is blending the sound of his French models with the old Spanish masters whom he admires greatly. As with previous instruments we've had in the past, this guitar is meticulously made with very clean craftsmanship. Sound is big, lush and rich. Although a spruce top, it has ample harmonic content in every note. It exceptionally lively with a lightning-fast attack and a plump, juicy quality of sound that follows immediately behind. Exceptionally balanced and clear at the same time, this is a true concert guitar ready for stage or studio. We are pleased to be representing this fine maker exclusively in the USA.

Photos of this guitar taken during construction

Moonseok Choi is a veteran guitar maker who has been building guitars for nearly 2 decades. He studied with guitar maker Om Taechang in Seoul, Korea from 2002-2005, and completed a Masters degree in Musical Instrument Making from the Westsaechsische Hochschule in Zwickau, Germany where he lived from 2006-2010. It was there where he met and befriended Dominik Wurth, another fine maker whom we represent. Moonseok builds mainly traditional instruments and prefers these to most modern designs, although he does build guitars with double backs as well - this is the result of his thesis in Zwickau where he studied the efficiency of the energy transmission of the sound as it projects from the stage to the audience. As his most influential luthiers, he cites Robert Bouchet and Daniel Friederich, and he pursues his "production approach based on their acoustic approach". He also feels a special connection to Bouchet, since his childhood dream was to become a painter (his mother loved art). In addition to building, Moonseok has done several significant repair and restoration jobs including instruments by Manuel Ramirez, Miguel Rodriguez, Domingo Esteso, and Jose Romanillos to just name a few.