Dernière sortie de l'atelier, cette guitare 8 cordes, dessinée sur mesure, regroupe plusieurs caractéristiques techniques intéressantes : un manche plaqué, avec talon massif, un joint de tête dissimulé façon Lacote et une touche galbée.

Il s'agit aussi d'un des quelques instruments que j'ai dotés d'un épicéa de récupération, issu d'un piano Seegmüller de 1856, de fabrication strasbourgeoise.

This custom-made 8-string guitar features interesting details : a veneered neck, a hidden Lacote-style neck joint and a radiused fingerboard. It's also one of the very few instruments I've made with some 1856 reclaimed spruce.

Avec un diapason réduit de 641 mm, un patron basé sur les instruments de l'atelier Petitjean à Mirecourt, cette guitare permet d'aborder un répertoire élargi au luth, tout en conservant un son typiquement romantique.

This short scale guitar makes it easy to play lute music, but with a typically romantic sound.

Photos par Fred Clément

Tout juste sortie de l'atelier, une guitare d'inspiration Grobert, en version économique (filets bois et manche non plaqué).Chevilles PegHeds en option.
The latest guitar from the workshop

2020 was to be the last venue of the Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin, but due to the situation, I couldn't attend once again at the HGGS Book Table this year. So here's a virtual book table, with all interesting books you'll find about your favourite instrument.
If a book appears to be missing in this ideal library, feel free to comment !

All kinds of Guitars

	Martin guitars, A history (vol 1+2) By Richard Johnston and Dick Boak. A History of C. F. Martin & Co., and the family transitions that created an American guitarmaking legacy, from German emigration in 1833 to present day marriage of tradition and technology. (as reviewed on martinguitars.com)
	1001 guitars to dream to play before you die By Terry Burrows. Dream guitars from 1525 to today. A big guitar collection, except that it won't take too much space.

Faszination Gitarre By Conny Restle and Christopher Li. The catalogue of the 2011 exhibition at the SIMPK / Musikinstrumentenmuseum Berlin.

Classical guitars

	Orfeo Magazine is brought to us by the Paris photographer Alberto Martinez. It's readable for free on Issuu and every 5 numbers, it gets printed and bound, and you just rediscover it. Wonderful pictures for guitar aficionados !
	34 classical guitars in life size Also by Alberto Martinez. These pictures are from Orfeo shooting, and are a nice addition to the magazine.
	A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present By Sheldon Urlik. All is in the title : fine classical guitars with nice detailed pictures and 2 CDs. Second, expanded edition, recently reissued.
	La Escuela Granadina de Guitarreros Collective authorship. The book tells us the story of classical guitar making in Granada and the spread of its particular features in the work of luthiers all around the world.
	La chitarra de liuteria By Stefano Grondona, Luca Waldner, Massimo Mandelli.
	Weissgerber Christof Hanusch, guitar player and specialist of the German guitars, takes us into a journey of the prolific luthier Richard Jacob.
	Antonio de Torres, guitar maker, his life and work Jose Luis Romanillos presents us the reference book on the life and work of the father of the modern classical guitar. Has been edited in English, German and Italian.

Romantic guitars

	Paris 1650-1950 (+ addendum) + Mirecourt Les Provinces Françaises + La Guitare espagnole 1750-1950. Françoise and Daniel Sinier De Ridder, French experts on historical plucked instruments, have issued this series of 4 wonderful books about period guitar.
	Stauffer & Co. – The Viennese Guitar and its music in the early 19th century Erik Pierre Hofmann, Pascal Mougin, Stefan Hackl.

Guitar building and technical

	Nouveau manuel du luthier, ou Traité pratique de la construction des instruments à cordes et à archet By Maugin and Maigne, first publised in 1834. Reprints and further editions of this book are easy to find, or you may read it on Gallica, as it is public now. Rather focused on the violin, but more recent editions, like this 1894, include a guitar chapter covering some aspects of the making of what still was the romantic guitar. French only.
	Making Master Guitars Roy Courtnall, drawings by Adrian Lucas . A reference book for the traditional making of Spanish guitars.
	The classical guitar, design and construction Robert Welford, Donald McLeod. Edited 1971.
	Guitarmaking: Tradition & Technology A reference book about both folk and classical guitars, by William R. Cumpiano & Jonathan D. Natelson.
	Making a Spanish guitar By Jose Louis Romanillos. Surely not a step-by-step guide, but rather a sum of his experience, with an interesting machine-free approach.
	Building electric guitars Martin Koch. A step-by-step building guide for beginners in the field of solid-body, hollow-body and semi-acoustic electric guitars and bass guitars.
	Historical Lute Construction Robert Lundbergs book, Historical Lute Construction, is by far the most comprehensive and authoritative work on the subject of understanding and constructing lutes.
	Technik + sound Elektro-gitarren Helmuth Lemme. A technical guide to the electronics of the guitar. German only.
	Guitar player repair guide, 3rd edition By Dan Erlewine. How to set up, maintain and repair electrics and acoustics.
	Complete guitar repair By Hideo Kamimoto.
	The Responsive Guitar + Making The Responsive Guitar By Ervin Somogyi.

Unclassified Guitar Makers, the endurance of artisanal values in North America Kathryn Marie Dudley tells us the history of a generation of self-taught artists who brought the American steel-string guitar to where it is now. Guitaromanie, Kleines Panoptikum der Gittare von Allix bis Zappa The guitar has been and still is a popular instrument. Much has been said about its history, its making or its playing. This book actually presents all that wouldn’t fit into any of these 3 categories. It displays guitar curiosities and unknown facts and artifacts from the 19th and the 20th centuries, on a humoristic tone but always supported by historical references. The author, Dr. Stefan Hackl is also known as the author of numerous publications and two reference books on the Viennese guitar. To remain in the guitar field, “Guitaromanie” is a pleasant fantasy, sadly only to be enjoyed in German. But what better place to learn Goethe’s language other than Berlin’s Holy Grail Guitar Show? Kalamazoo Gals Intrigued by a photograph of a large number of women sitting outside the Gibson guitar factory in the mid 40s, John Thomas sets out on an exploration. The company had always claimed it didn’t build any guitars during World War II. Upon investigation it turns out the there are thousands of ‘Banner’ Gibsons that were produced during the war years and that these were largely made by women. John Thomas tracks down and interviews some of these women, visits the old Gibson factory and pores over the Gibson production ledgers to uncover a fascinating story of life in the factory during wartime when there were few skilled craftsmen around and materials were scarce and restricted. in spite of this the “Kalamazoo Gals” managed to make what many consider to be some of the finest-sounding Gibson acoustics that the company ever made. Review by Adrian Lucas for HGGS 2018 Wood Understanding Wood: A Craftsman's Guide to Wood Technology R. Bruce Hoadley explains everything you need to know about wood as a material. WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide Eric Meier put his website wood-database.com into a book. Detailed pictures, figures, data, identification keys for all kind of woods.

Dernier sorti de l'atelier, un cavaquinho brésilien pour Max, en palissandre de Rio, table en épicéa réemployé d'un piano Seegmuller Strasbourg de 1856, manche en acajou, mécaniques Gotoh planétaires et vernis au tampon.
J'en ai fait un plan pour l'occasion, à retrouver en pdf par ici.

The workshop's last creation, a Brazilian cavaquinho in rosewood, a spruce top from a 1856 piano, french polished. A technical drawing is available in pdf this way.

Cette belle viennoise, par le célèbre luthier allemand, a fait une pause à l'atelier pour une indispensable remise en état de jeu : refrettage en fil de frette ancien, mécanisme de réglage du manche grippé, tasseau haut fracturé, table fendue, dos et chevalet décollé. On espère la voir repartie pour 100 nouvelles années !

This 1920 Viennese model from the great German maker Herman Hauser has recently been restored at the workshop : refret, split upper bloc, unglued bridge and cracked soundboard. Gone for another century !

Une nouvelle copie Stauffer fraîchement sortie de l'atelier, érable pommelé, table épicéa, filets noyer, manche réglable, touche Rocklite, mécaniques Rubner, vernis au tampon. Disponible dès à présent chez Siccas Karlsruhe.

A brand new Stauffer inspired guitar, quilted maple, spruce soundboard, adjustable neck, touche rocklite, Rubner tuners, French polish. Available from now at Siccas Karlsruhe.

L'atelier, route des Romains à Strasbourg, ne doit pas son adresse au hasard.

Le 30 mars 1878, a été trouvée lors du creusement d'une cave pour le compte de  MM. Veith et Robin, aux numéros 27 et 29 de ce qui était alors la route de Paris, la stèle d'un légionnaire romain de la 2^e Légion.

La stèle porte l'inscription suivante : C. LARGENNIUS/ C. FAB. LUC. MIL./ LEG. II SCAEVAE/ AN. XXXVII STIP./ XVIII H.S.E. pour : Caius Largennius Caii Fabia Luca miles legionis II scaevae annorum XXXVII stipendiorum XVIII hic situs est, soit « Caius Largennius, fils de Caius, de la gens Fabia, originaire de la ville de Lucques en Italie. Soldat de la Légion II Augusta. Décédé à 37 ans après 18 ans de service. Ici se trouve sa sépulture ».

La stèle, étudiée par le chanoine Alexandre Joseph Straub, est désormais visible au Musée archéologique de la ville de Strasbourg.

Did you know ? In the basement of my workshop, the tomb of a Roman soldier, nearly 2000 years old, was found in 1878. It's visible in the Archeological Museum of Strasbourg.

Photo : Musées de Strasbourg sur Wikimedia Commons

Pour la 6^e année consécutive, la SemenceriE, l'incontournable lieu collectif artistique autogéré à Strasbourg, propose un week-end d'échange de techniques et de savoir faire les samedi 20 et dimanche 21 octobre 2018.

Ça se passe à la Sem, 42 rue du Ban-de-la-Roche, quartier Gare à Strasbourg.

Pour l'occasion, je propose comme en 2016 un atelier d'initiation au vernis au tampon, une technique employée en ébénisterie traditionnelle et en lutherie, exigeante mais très économique.

Inscription préalable indispensable par mail, maximum 8 personnes à partir de 16 ans. Le stage se déroule en 2 parties :
- samedi 20 octobre 2018 14-16 heures,
- dimanche 21 octobre 2018 14-16 heures;

Il est indispensable d'être présent sur les 2 jours pour avoir un bon aperçu de la technique.

Le texte d'introduction à l'atelier, qui reprend les bases de la technique, est disponible au format pdf  par ici : Salbscht gemacht ! 2016 Initiation au vernis au tampon

(cette superbe affiche est de Cat et Crust, made in Papier Gachette)

Les autres ateliers du festival sont à retrouver sur le programme complet :

Un aperçu des techniques explorées lors de la formation incrustation et gravure sur nacre organisé par l'APLG au Mans en janvier 2018 avec Pierrick Brua, qui a eu la chance de suivre en 2016 le stage monté à Vienne par William Laskins, la référence incontestée en la matière.

Bonjour à tou(te)s,

J'aimerais partager avec vous un test d'écoute qui est en ligne pour encore 10 jours, dans le cadre du Leonardo Guitar Research Project. Ce projet, qui vise à comparer les qualités sonores des bois locaux et exotiques, touche bientôt à sa fin.

L'équipe du projet a élaboré un test d'écoute en vidéo, dans lequel un même morceau, d'une durée de 3 minutes, a été joué, sans transition, sur plusieurs guitares, faites dans des essences différentes. Certaines en bois tropical (palissandre, acajou, cedro), les autres en essences européennes, encore peu utilisées en lutherie.

A part les essences de bois, toutes les autres caractéristiques sont inchangées : patron, table en épicéa, barrage et cordes.

Le test consiste à écouter en aveugle le morceau :