Otto Vowinkel

Guitar maker Amsterdam

dealers

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

Cim Frode plays Purple Ash and Prelude nr 3 by Villa Lobos for Siccas Guitars

cim frode playing otto vowinkel at siccas guitar

This is Cim Frode, a guitarist from Sweden who lives and works in Germany. Cim plays both classical and jazz and has recorded multiple solo albums, with music ranging from fingerstyle, classical, Celtic music and jazz.

The still above comes from a video from Siccas Guitars, a guitar shop in Karlsruhe, located in the south of Germany and founded by the brothers Manuel and Mirco.

Siccas Guitars is very active on social media. It has several YouTube channels, including ToneBank, with video’s in which Cim Frode playing guitars available at Siccas.

In almost every video Cim Frode plays the same, two pieces : his own Purple Ash and the third Prelude by Heitor Villa Lobos. Like this prospective buyers can easily compare the instruments, for instance my 2A, 3A and Concert Model.

SICCAS GUITARS | CIM FRODE

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.

Galerie des Luthiers

This is Maurice Freton from Galerie des Luthiers in Lyon, France.

Esther and I only knew the city Lyon from passing it on our way southwards. Last time we decided to make a stop and pay it a visit, something we should have done a long time before. Lyon is a beautiful place, full of nice people and fantastic restaurants!

We  went to see Galerie des Luthiers, a guitar shop specialized in classical guitars, run by Alice and Maurice Freton. That particular day Alice was out of town, but her father Maurice welcomed us with great enthusiasm.

Next week Galerie des Luthiers will have two guitars of mine in stock: a 2A and a 3A model.

Minsu Yu

This is Minsu Yu, the owner of Classical Guitar Studio Partita, in Seoul, South-Korea. Last March he came all the way to Europe, to meet and greet guitar makers he represents, including me. Before he came to Amsterdam he  spent more than a week in Italy and after all the pasta he felt like some noodles. The first night we took him to a restaurant called Korea, which didn’t happen to be the perfect choice…  Luckily Minsu Yu stayed a few more days so we could make up for it.

Minsu Yu and I got to know each other thanks to the South Korean guitarist Ricardin Hwang about whom I wrote earlier.  Minsu, besides owing the most important guitar shop of South-Korea, turned out to be a very good guitar player.

Otto Vowinkel en Minsu Yu op het terras van Café de Prins in Amsterdam

minsu yu playing guitar in otto vowinkel's workshop

Tara Stewart

tara stewart photographer

This is Tara Stewart taking a picture. Tara is flamenco aficionado, professional filmer and video editor. She shoots and edits all video’s for Guitar Salon International, my dealer in the USA.

A couple of weeks ago Tara came to Amsterdam for a holiday and brought her camera. She visited my workshop where I happened to be working on a new guitar for GSI! She took pictures and filmed and the beautiful result can be seen in GSI’s blog post Coming soon Otto Vowinkel.

While she was busy working, her boyfriend, Los Angelos Guitar Quartet member John Dearman, tried a new ceder top.

john dearman otto vowinkel

Allemande BWV 996

allemande bwv 996

This is Drew Henderson performing Allemande BWV 996 by J.S. Bach. The Allemande consists of two parts, both repeated with ornaments. This makes four parts in one piece which in this video are used to compare four different guitars, built by four different makers.

In order of ‘appearance’ you hear instruments by Douglass Scott, Mathew Rubendall and James White. From 2:05 you can listen to a cedar top 2A guitar by me.

Listen and judge yourself. The 2A guitar from this video can be bought at the Canadian store Grand Salon the Guitare where the video was recorded. You can order a 2A guitar with one of my dealers or directly with me.