Otto Vowinkel

Guitar maker Amsterdam

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José Antonio López

This José Antonio López, a classical guitarist from Puerto Rico. Every year he travels through Europe, accompanying his students from the Universidad de Puerto Rico where he teaches at the Department of Humanities. Last year he paid me a visit.

This year he came to collect his guitar and to celebrate we went out for dinner. José Antonio is very active man. Performing, teaching, composing and traveling. He does it all and all with great dedication.

Check out his instagram account where he posted a lot of pictures and video’s of his new instrument: a concert guitar with maple back and sides and a spruce top. I herewith forward one which shows the beautiful bear claw spruce.

Bear claw _Spruce Guitar

A Maple Guitar for Guitar Salon International

Otto Vowinkel_Andy Lee_ Guitar Salon International

This is Andy Lee from Guitar Salon International. Andy attended the Frankfurter Messe where producers of instruments and accessories meet their suppliers and dealers. Because Andy came all the way from Santa Monica – California, he decided to combine Frankurt with a visit to Amsterdam where we had dinner together in one of my favorite restaurants: Hotel de Goudfazant.

  • Guitar_Salon_International_Otto_Vowinkel_Maple_Spruce_Detail
  • Guitar_Salon_International_Otto_Vowinkel Maple Spruce

I recently sent a maple concert guitar to GSI, with a beautiful bearclaw spruce top, as you can see in the pictures above. The guitar was sold almost immediately, which is good for both GSI and me, but a bit unfortunate for Irina Kulikova. She was planning to record a video with it, as she announces in the instagram post.

I also visited the Frankfurter Messe, just like last year when the video above was made, a short interview with Andy’s GSI colleagues, John Paul Trotter and David Collet. As you can see, already then I talk about how satisfied I am with the use of maple.

The interview above about the cooperation between GSI and me, is part of a longer reportage about GSI visiting the Frankfurter Messe in 2018. You can view this reportage here in full.

SoloDuo

These are Lorenzo Micheli and Matteo Mela, better known as SoloDuo. They are standing in front of the Concertgebouw, the afternoon before their concert. We invited SoloDuo to perform in our series Meesters op de Gitaar which we have been organizing now for more 20 years. Lorenzo and Matteo seemed very relaxed about their concert and even dropped by in my workshop to try my guitars.

Their concert was one of the best guitar concerts I have ever heard. I didn’t believe it to be possible but their version of van Beethoven’s Pathetique was fantastic.

SoloDuo after a stunning performance for a sold out Concertgebouw.

Tiana Taya

This is Tiana Taya, a Serbian guitarist living in Barcelona, Spain. She tagged me on Facebook, posting a recording of Se Ela Perguntar by the Brazilian composer Dilermando Reis. I think she plays it beautifully and asked her if I could share the video which I could, but for some reasons I couldn’t share it on my website. But then guitarist Ozan Saritepe found the video on the YouTube Channel of RM Acoustics, so here it is.

My concert model with maple back and sides played by Tiana in the video, is getting more and more populair now. Soon I will post about the one which just arrived at Guitar Salon International. Irina Kulikova will make a recording with it to which I am looking forward very much. But first Tiana Taya, on top of the mountain, playing Dilermando Reis.

Noppakorn Auesirinucroch

Noppakorn and friends

This is Noppakorn Auesirinucroch (left) with three of his fellow students. Noppakorn studies with Enno Voorhorst at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag and came to the workshop to try a guitar. His friends, two classical guitar players and a classical saxofoon player, accompanied him.

Noppakorn wants a maple – bearclaw spruce guitar. Maple guitars are getting more and more populair now. Soon there will be one available at GSI about which I will post later on.

Especially for the blog Noppakorn played a fragment of l’Aube du dernier jour by Francis Kleynjans. The brand new guitar in the video is a concert model with a spruce top and rosewood back and sides, an instrument waiting to be sent to its new owner, which explains the protection underneath the bridge.