There are deep and profound differences between a luthery instrument and an instrument coming out an industrial production line. In these notes I want to explain briefly how and why I build my guitars, and the special characteristics of them.


First of all, when I build an instrument I aim to two targets: expressive sound and excellence in construction. Therefore every single guitar is a step towards a goal that always changes and moves when one tries to catch it up, and is (to put it clearly) an asymptote, a limit, an unreachable horizon line; but what's important is not the reaching in itself, but the road you follow in this research.
This road is made of major or minor, but in any case continuous, changes, of technical construction developments, and of a continuous learning

There is an obvious consequence: not a single guitar is equal to another one. This statement is somewhat abused in the craftsmanship world; but it's true, in the sense that every instrument is born through a negation of the former. In a sense: against it. And this is necessary, if in this continuous progress one doesn't want to remain anchored in the same place, repeating stereotypically the same product. One must not get confused, at this point, because it's just in force of this continuous changing that there is a continuity between two successive instruments; even if the mental attitude when buying a luthery instrument has to be very different from that with which one buys an instrument coming out an industry, which can be, in some sense, reassuring with its certified homologations and standardizations.
Therefore, not paying attention to prejudices and clichés, and judging the instrument in itself, one must necessarily try to understand what a handicraft product means, keeping in mind that it must always meet (and often surpass) the standards of quality and reliability of a commercial product, with the handicraft quality as an extra bonus.

My guitars are fully made from scratch by myself, with the only exception of the frets, the machines and the strings.

These parts are ordered (by me) to specialized industries or craftsmen. The soundboard is always made in spruce, split along grain and suitably seasoned. Woods for sides and back can vary, and the choice is made when planning and designing a new instrument. Contrary to a common legend, it's not true that the sound of and instrument depends strongly on the woods which it's made of: the important point is its overall design and making. E.g.: the best guitars I had the chance to play are made of cypress and maple, which are "cheap" woods, even commercially speaking.
I always use mahogany for the neck and ebony or rosewood for the fingerboard. Decorations are designed at my discretion, following aesthetic criteria, independently from commercial choices.

My guitars can seem at first sight delicate and weak, and this impression comes out spontaneously when comparing them to the most part of modern industrial production, where wood thicknesses are much greater, following the disputable equation "more wood = more sound". Fully equipped with strings and machines they weigh 1300÷1400 grams, depending on woods used for back and sides. Thicknesses are around 1.7 mm for the sides, 2.2 mm for the back and 1.9 mm for the soundboard. It's true that these can be considered thin thicknesses, but one must not be deceived about time endurance, mechanical sturdiness and acoustic performance of the instrument as a whole. In this respect an outstanding example are the guitars made by Antonio de Torres, which (with even thinner thicknesses) appear to us nowadays in their full acoustic power and mechanical strength.

With these thicknesses the 40 kg of string pull will necessarily warp somewhat the soundboard: this is not only inevitable, but absolutely necessary, to allow the whole structure to settle, reaching a new equilibrium. When designing the instrument this effect is carefully planned and taken into account, and the soundboard is assembled in such a way that its elasticity and flexibility are not only maintained, but increased by the string tension. It would be a very serious problem if the instrument would be so rigid not to change its shape under a 40 kg pull.
Thin soundboard thicknesses don't imply, therefore, fragility of the instrument: the bearing structure is very strong, and has the heavy task to resist to the string tension, while to the soundboard is left the only task of producing the sound.

The glues I use are of various kind: synthetic for generic assembly (neck-head, for instance), and hot glue for the whole soundbox. The hot glue (in my case bone glue) is an excellent adhesive with a number of advantages for luthery: outstanding acoustic performance, very tenacious grip, and reversibility, most important should the instrument be repaired.

The varnish is shellac based, pad applied. This technique is a very ancient one, hard to master and lengthy to use, but it is a must for the final result, and giving precious results both from aesthetic and of acoustic point of view. For further details about the varnish, its characteristics and its care please refer to the dedicated article in the section cure & maintenance.

All my instruments are built, fully assembled and stored in an environment with a relative humidity of 50%, with a ±1% tolerance, electronically controlled. This is most important to avoid wood fissures in too dry environments: making the assembly in a constant humidity environment allows in fact uniform part movement and an easy wood "giving" when the humidity level will necessarily change in the future instrument life. For further details about the relative humidity, its influence on the guitar structure and performance, and about the precautions to adopt against the risks (involved especially in sudden humidity drops) please refer to the dedicated article in the section cure & maintenance.

In any case, please remember that it's a precise owner responsibility to take care of the instrument, and to keep it in an ideal environment, with relative humidity from 50% to 65%. These values can change somewhat without serious risks for the guitar safety, but will cause a general lowering of the performance, both acoustical and mechanical: in fact humidity variations cause the instrument to move somewhat, changing its overall setup. In standard conditions, for instance, the string action is of 2.5 mm on the 1st string and of 3.0 mm on the 6th: with the term action one means the distance of the strings from the fingerboard, measured from the top of the 12th key and the bottom of the string when the first key is hold down (obviously these are subjective values, which can be somewhat changed, according to personal preferences of the player). In a dry atmosphere these values increase: as a consequence we will obtain a more rigid instrument answer and a guitar "harder" to play. In a very humid environment the action lowers, the instrument loses elasticity and the sound becomes heavier, even if the result is less unpleasant compared to what happens in a dry atmosphere.

Temperature, at constant relative humidity, has not major effects on the instrument, unless it doesn't reach extreme values, especially high values. Even if low temperatures cause a general lowering of the guitar performance, without endangering its stability, it's always advisable not to expose the instrument to polar temperatures (e.g.: in a car trunk, in a cold winter night, when one can very easily reach -10°C). One has to be much more careful towards high temperatures, however, because they are much easier to reach even unawares; for example leaving the guitar inside its case near a radiator or a stove, or to direct sun beneath a window for several hours, or inside a car parked in sunlight (always remember that the case is in general mat black, and therefore absorbs radiant energy in a most efficient way). In these cases 50°C or more can be easily reached in a surprising short time, and serious damages to the instrument will be the consequence. It's certainly true that good quality cases are in general well insulated thermally, and therefore it takes time to raise the inside temperature (so relax: no problem if you walk in the sunlight with your guitar, as it's most likely that you will need much more protection than your instrument), but it surely can happen to forget the guitar in its case inside a car trunk for one hour or more.

In the worst case (and Murphy Law is always behind the corner) the damages could regard the gluing of the various parts. We already told you that the glue used in the body is bone glue, which is reversible, and therefore softens at high temperature and/or humidity: so in case one reaches high temperatures, it can well happen that opening the case one has the very unpleasant surprise to find the guitar partially "unglued". Obviously this would not happen with synthetic glues, but we already explained the criteria that advise against these kind of adhesives.

Minor damages are the varnish damages: they however are more likely, because they can happen at lower temperatures. Please refer for more details to the article about varnishes in the section cure & maintenance.

It can happen, however, that after some years of regular use the guitar seems to lose acoustic quality. This doesn't happens normally, and usually it depends from storage conditions and general use. For instance, it's absolutely normal that key wearing cause a loss of accuracy in the fingerboard, and that wood settling ask for a fine tuning of the "action". In these cases the luther will easily make some specialized maintenance, necessary, however, in every complex instrument intensively used.

Possibly we should not undergo to these small attentions and troubles with industry built instruments, but this is the tiny (and also pleasant) price to pay for having an instrument made of wood, alive and reactive to its environment; for which the most important point is the beauty of sound and the pliability and flexibility in the hands of the artist.


top