Otto Vowinkel

Guitar maker Amsterdam

A guitar neck should have a slight curve

Some people assume that the neck of a guitar should be perfectly straight. However, the neck of a guitar should always have a slight curve. If it were not the case, the strings would buzz. This has to do with the string’s amplitude, which is not the same everywhere. If this difference in amplitude were not taken into account, the strings would buzz against certain areas of the neck.


The photos of the neck and the steel ruler held against it clearly show that light passes through in certain places.

The video clearly demonstrates that in all areas a piece of paper fits between the frets and the steel ruler, except for the first and the last frets.


And that is precisely the intention.

Frauke Meyer

This is Frauke Meyer, student at the Staatlichen Berufsfachschule für Musikinstrumentbau Mittenwald, in Bavaria, Germany.

From an early age Frauke wants to become a professional guitar builder. She is always looking for opportunities to expand her knowledge. Now as a student luthier, she explores the world of guitarmaking through self-organized internships.

Searching the internet, Frauke came across my guitars, read about my work and listened to some sound samples. She wrote me an email and asked if she could do an internship with me during her Easter holidays.

To be honest, I’m not too fond of internships. It’s not that I wouldn’t want to share my knowledge. It’s because of the size of my workshop. It’s just too small for two luthiers at work. And besides that, interns take time and I’m a busy luthier.

This internship would only last two weeks and Frauke seemed very serious about it. So I made an exception and replied that she was welcome to come over.

Frauke turned out to be a serious student indeed. Eager to learn but also an easy and pleasant person to have around.

So, to anyone she’ll contact for her next internship, I wholeheartedly recommend her. To those who would like to keep track of her guitar building activities, you’ll find her on instagram @framey.guitars

Instrumentenbauschule Mittenwald

Meesters op de Gitaar

Rovshan Mamedkuliev
Esther Steenbergen
Danijel Cerović, Goran Krivokapić, Montenegrin Guitar Duo
Berta Rojas
Fa, Duo Siqueira Lima
Judicaël Perroy
Margarita Escarpa
Marion Schaap, Alexis Muzurakis, Susana Prieto, Gabriel Bianco.
Meng Su
Paco Peña with students
Rafael Aguirre
Sanel Redzic
Asgerdur Sigardurdottir, Manuel Barrueco
Costas Cotsiolis with Susana Opanski’s students
Tariq Harb
Zoran Dukic, Pavel Steidl, Thomas Fellow, Reentko, European Guitar Quartet
Hans Boom, Raphaella Smits
Marcin Dylla
Marcin Dylla
irina kulikova
Irina Kulikova with her daughter
Laura Young, Otto Vowinkel
Meng Su, Yameng Wang, Beijing Guitar Duo
Back stage after Roberto Aussel’s concert
Ana Vidovic
SoloDuo Concertgebouw Museumplein
Lorenzo Micheli, Matteo Mela, SoloDuo
odair assad zoran dukic fa denis otto vowinkel
Odair Assad, Zoran Dukic, Fa, Otto Vowinkel
Otto Tolonen
Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues, Gabriel Bianco

These are Rovshan Mamedkuliev, Esther Steenbergen, Danijel Cerović, Goran Krivokapić, Montenegrin Guitar Duo, Berta Rojas, Françoise-Emmanuelle Denis, Fa, Cecilia Siqueira and Fernando Lima, Duo Siqueira Lima, Judicael Perroy, Margarita Escarpa, Marion Schaap, Alexis Muzurakis, Susana Prieto, Gabriel Bianco, Meng Su, Paco Peña and students, Rafael Aguirre, Sanel Redzic, Asgerdur Sigardurdottir, Manuel Barrueco, Costas Cotsiolis with Susana Opanski and her class, Tariq Harb, Zoran Dukic, Pavel Steidl, Thomas Fellow, Reentko, European Guitar Quartet, Hans Boom, Raphaella Smits, Marcin Dylla, Irina Kulikova with her daughter, Laura Young, Meng Su, Yameng Wang, Beijing Guitar Duo, Roberto Aussel, Ana Vidovic, Matteo Mela, Lorenzo Micheli, Solo Duo, Odair Assad, Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues and Otto Tolonen.

Just before or after their concert.

These are just a few names of all the guitarists who performed in our series Meesters op de Gitaar. We would have loved to invite many more guitarists, but after 25 years of organizing we thought it was time to move on. The series won’t stop. Het Concertgebouw will continue, something we are very happy with.

More information about ‘the transfer’ can be found in this interview with Esther. (It’s in Dutch, but I’m sure Google translate can be of help).

We took many more pictures but a lot of them got lost because of an external hard drive crash. What’s left can be found at Flickr.

VŨ HIỂN Emotion Guitars Vietnam

This is VŨ HIỂN performing Maria, a well known gavotte by Francisco Tarrega.

VŨ HIỂN is a guitarist from Vietnam and owner of Emotion Guitars, a guitar shop in Hanoi where since last year, my guitars can be found.

Vu Hien was born in 1983 and started playing the guitar at an early age but it was not before his twenties that he became a real guitar enthousiast. Nowadays Vu Hien is a central figure in the Vietnamese guitar scene. He is well known as a performer, teacher and arranger/ composer. He is also active as an organizer of concerts, festivals and competitions and the owner of Emotion Guitars.

Emotion Guitars Website | YouTube | Facebook

Ju young Cheong is a versatile guitarist

This Ju young Cheong , a composer / guitarist from South Korea. The still above was taken from a YouTube Video of which he sent me the link in a DM on Instagram. As you can see, Ju young Cheong has a collection of guitars among which one of mine.

In the video, which can be watched below, he accompanies vocalist Dami Lee, performing Like Someone in Love, the jazz standard written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke.

Damie Lee and Ju young Cheong work together on a regular base. They call their cooperation The Jazz Guitar & Vocal Duo Project. New songs are uploaded to the YouTube channel of Damie Lee, who, besides being a great singer, is also a professional composer and pianist.

Ju young Cheong has a Masters degree in jazz guitar. He studied with Frank Möbus at the Hochschule für Musik Franz List in Weimar. I read on his website that he also studied in Rotterdam with the late Paul Hock. In 2017 Ju young Cheong started working on his PhD at Sungkyunkwan University Korea in the Department of Interdisciplinary Program in Studies of Arts in order to become a Doctor of Philosophy.


Visit Ju Young Cheong | Dami Lee |


Ju Young Cheong plays a 2A Model | Dit bericht in het Nederlands

I.M. Alex, Alejandro, van der Horst

This is Alex van der Horst, better known as the luthier Alejandro. Alex was born in Amsterdam but lived in Spain from the age of 17. He had a small workshop in Torremolinos, near Malaga.

Alex was a great guitar maker and very musical player. He knew every classical guitarist and every classical luthier and could imitate each one of them perfectly. He introduced me to Esther who became my wife. He became a member of our family. He was cheerful, lively and above all, very funny. There is so much to tell about Alex.

Alex and I spent a lot of time together. Sometimes on a trip, abroad, but mainly in the workshop or at home, in Amsterdam. The city where he was born, where he visited his mother, where he made a stopover traveling back and forth between Spain and Sweden, where his Birgitta lived. Amsterdam increasingly became the place where he had to be for his medical treatment and eventually it became the place where he died. Exactly twelve years ago today.