At the beginning of June 2022, I traveled with Christian, a good friend, to the Kunsthaus Weiz (Styria) for a concert by one of the world’s most renowned jazz musicians, who has been active for half a century, to finally experience this incredible artist live.

Since we had to plan a very long journey anyway, we set off early in the morning to have some time at the venue. Maybe there would even be a chance to exchange a few words with this exceptional musician – and, in the very best and most unlikely case, to receive a comment on one of my instruments.

We knew that, due to COVID, he had to be especially careful to stay healthy and avoid unnecessary contact. So we were all the more surprised when the most unlikely scenario came true – in the best possible way.

He asked his tour manager to bring Christian’s baritone guitar (which I had built) to the dressing room so he could try it out. He liked the guitar so much that we were invited to speak with him after the concert. He told us it felt like searching for the Holy Grail to find a nylon-string baritone guitar that worked for him – and it seems he had found it that day.

So I built a guitar (with Half-Nashville tuning), which finally arrived at his place in New York in mid-January 2023. The next morning, he wrote to tell me that he had played it for four hours straight and that the guitar was fantastic!

What plans he’s now making with it … we will hopefully find out soon!

This guitar features two special elements:
Udo Rösner modified a pickup specifically for this guitar, using the #Hash as a base. He removed the microphone and instead installed a tone control – similar to the old Ovation pickups from the 1970s and 80s.

The second special feature:
High-quality acoustic instruments are extremely sensitive to feedback when amplified. I managed to design a removable damping rod to suppress the resonance mode in the top of the guitar that is mainly responsible for this. Installing and removing the rod takes only a few minutes and transforms the guitar from a wonderful acoustic instrument into one that’s stage-ready.

This quint guitar was built at the request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to perform a piece using a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in standard tuning, and a quint bass guitar – a composition written especially for this ensemble by Freya Arde, which can now also be seen and heard in a video.

A small special feature: The backs of these guitars are made from one single piece of wood, which is very rare, and the three pieces were cut side by side from the same tree – siblings in the truest sense of the word.

This terz guitar was built at the request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to perform a piece using a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in standard tuning, and a quint bass guitar – a composition written especially for this ensemble by Freya Arde, which can now also be seen and heard in a video.

A small special feature: The backs of these guitars are made from one single piece of wood, which is very rare, and the three pieces were cut side by side from the same tree – siblings in the truest sense of the word.

This quint bass guitar was built at the request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to perform a piece using a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in standard tuning, and a quint bass guitar – a composition written especially for this ensemble by Freya Arde, which can now also be seen and heard in a video.

A small special feature: The backs of these guitars are made from one single piece of wood, which is very rare, and the three pieces were cut side by side from the same tree – siblings in the truest sense of the word.

Quint bass guitars (baritone guitars) were commonly found and very popular around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Why these guitars completely disappeared in the turmoil of the two world wars remains a mystery to me. Slowly but surely, they are finding their place again in the guitar family. I truly appreciate the distinctive tonal character of these instruments – their sound is warm, sustaining, and modifiable at any volume.
This type of guitar is wonderful to play as a solo instrument and is an absolute enrichment, especially in ensemble settings.

For this particular guitar, Michael chose to use only local woods and added a seventh string to extend the range with a low E string.
To be able to play in a big band or together with an accordion and other louder instruments, we installed a pickup.

I sponsored this terz guitar for the 2015 guitar competition of the Liechtenstein Guitar Days. It was awarded to the first prize winner, Jinsae Kim.

An optional feature of this guitar is the segmented saddle insert called “FABS” (Free Adjustable Bridge System). With the FABS, it is possible to adjust the intonation more precisely.

An optional feature of this guitar is the segmented saddle insert called “FABS” (Free Adjustable Bridge System). With the FABS, it is possible to adjust the intonation more precisely.

… The “Santiago” accompanied me in early 2005 on my 1,800-kilometer pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela …