My passion for hand-made instruments goes back to 1990 when with the help of a group of friends, I made my first classical guitar. I used it right up to my 5th year diploma at the Music Academy. My interest in the making of musical instruments has gradually taken over my music studies.
In the year 2000, having finished the four-year course at the Milan Civic School for hand-made instruments, I decided to set myself up hand-making instruments professionally. At the same time, I also worked for eight years at the above school teaching workshops on making modern plucked instruments.
In terms of my education, I specialised in the making and restoration of plucked instruments with a thesis on the Guadagnini family’s guitars in the 1800s in Turin.
To begin with, I concentrated on classical guitars as it was an instrument I knew well thanks to my years of study at the Music Academy. However, I later started making a variety of acoustic (folk) models and these now account for the majority of my production.

Having introduced myself, I would like to discuss the development of this section about hand-made instruments with you.

I must begin by thanking Reno Bandoni for the faith he has shown in me by putting me in charge of this section on hand-made instruments for the new “fingerpicking.net”.

The idea of wanting to be a journalist was far from my thoughts. My job is making guitars. But I was immediately gratified by the opportunity to propose topics of general interest concerning the making of instruments with the aim of clarifying doubts and satisfying curiosity. Perhaps most importantly, I hope to draw attention to the professionalism with which this job is carried out in Italy.

I will sometimes work alongside colleagues so that we can explore the chosen topics together and create meaningful opportunities for dialogue and discussion between instrument-makers and musicians.

Over the last few years, the Italian hand-made guitar industry has achieved high levels of quality and it has the potential of being recognised as one of the best producers in the world.

In Italy, the majority of professional instrument-makers concentrate on classical guitars and the number of those who specialise exclusively in acoustic instruments is on the increase.

I would like to propose topics such as the restoration and preservation of musical instruments. Whether the instrument in question is a Martin from the early 1900s or a Guadagnini from a hundred years previously, the methodology behind its restoration remains the same. The study of historical musical instruments allows us to follow the evolution of techniques in their making, just as techniques in musical execution have evolved in line with varying music tastes over different periods. This could be the basis for another future article.

Enthusiasm is not lacking and nor are the ideas. We have many and will try to whet your appetite and satisfy your curiosity bit by bit!

Bye for now!