Otto Vowinkel

Guitar maker Amsterdam

dealers

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.