2019 François Leonard CD/IN

A 2019 classical guitar by François Leonard, with a cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides, built in his workshop in Lorient, France.

In the videos above, Jaxon Williams gives a first look at this guitar and Garrett Podgorski plays Alonso Mudarra's "Fantasia X" on it.

Seven Low and Seven High Struts

Inside is François's own system, a kind of modified lattice that he prefers not to call lattice: seven low struts and seven high ones, without carbon, some triangular for sustain and some round for strength and power, all arched to shape how the top moves. He adapts it to every top, since no two are alike in stiffness or density.

Dark and Warm, with Punch

The tone is full-bodied and plump in every register, stylish and very expressive. It has the punch of his spruce guitars, with the added darkness and warmth of the cedar, and enough power for any concert. The French polish – a meditation for François – and the double sides follow the French tradition of Friederich and Field.

A Guiding Quote

George Sand wrote that "Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience." It is the mantra François builds by.

François Leonard: A French Luthier in Lorient

François Leonard was born in Nantes, France, in 1973. After studying the guitar for a few years he moved to England in 1995, at 22, to learn guitar making at the Newark School under Roy Courtnall, and stayed five years, also building traditional instruments such as the Swedish nyckelharpa and the hammered dulcimer. In 2006 he set up his own workshop in Lorient, Brittany.

Lakewood, Tobias Berg and Dominique Field

Around 2000 he moved to Germany, where for five years he worked at Lakewood Guitars alongside Tobias Berg, in charge of body construction on several thousand guitars – learning above all how to choose tops and hear their thicknesses – and where Michel Brück taught him French polishing. In the French tradition of Daniel Friederich and Dominique Field, whom he visits regularly, he builds with double sides, and he meets with acousticians to add science to the intuitive side of his craft.