Luthier

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An engraver's impression of Antonio Stradivari examining an instrument.

A luthier (English pronunciation, IPA:/lu.tje/) is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French (its word for lute is "luth"). The makers that originally built lutes eventually built violins and other string instruments as well, but the apellation remained.

The craft of lutherie is commonly divided into two main categories: stringed instruments that are plucked or strummed, and stringed instruments that are bowed. While there are a nearly limitless variety of stringed instruments types—both historic and modern, from many places and cultures—the following lists are composed of those instruments still in use today.^[1]

In the first category are the: autoharp, banjo, bouzouki, charango, cittern, dulcimer, guitar, harp, harpsichord, kantele, kithara, kora, koto, lute, theorbo, archlute, angelique, torban, kobza, bandura, lyre, mandolin, oud, shamisen, sitar, ukulele, and veena.

In the second category are the: cello, crwth, double bass, erhu, fiddle, mouthbow, nyckelharpa, hurdy gurdy, rabab, rebec, sarangi, viol, viola, viola da braccio, viola d'amore, viola da gamba and violin.

And since bowed stringed instruments require a bow, this second category of luthier contains a subtype known as an "archetier", which is a French word for one who makes bows.^[2] While the division of luthiers into two categories may seem arbitrary, there are those who are passionate about the difference between these categories.^[3]^[4] For this reason, the remainder of this article will use the division for clarity and convenience.

1 Plucked or strummed string instrument luthiers
2 Bowed string instrument luthiers
3 References
4 Suggested reading for the luthier
5 External links

[edit] Plucked or strummed string instrument luthiers

There are important luthiers who specialize in the instruments of the lute family (lutes, archlutes, theorbos, etc.) specifically: Cezar Mateus, Ray Nurse, Grant Tomlinson, Lawrence K.Brown, Andrew Rutherford, Richard Berg, Michael Schreiner, Alexander Batov, et alia.

See also: Classical guitar making

Two important early luthiers in the guitar category are Antonio Torres Jurado of Spain, who is credited with developing the form of classical guitar still in use today, and Christian Frederick Martin of Germany who developed the flattop guitar. Another early luthier was Orville Gibson an American who specialized in mandolins, but who is credited with creating the archtop guitar. John D'Angelico and Jimmy D'Aquisto were two important 20th century luthiers who worked with archtop guitars. Lloyd Loar, worked briefly for the Gibson Guitar Corporation making mandolins and guitars.

Paul Bigsby's innovation of the tremolo arm for archtop and electric guitars is still in use today and may have influenced Leo Fender's creation of the solid body electric guitar. Coincidentally, Les Paul independently developed a solid body electric guitar at the same time as Fender. However both Fender and Paul were preceded by Adolph Rickenbacher's Bakelite "frying pan" solid body electric guitar developed with and patented by George Beauchamp ^[5].

A company founded by luthier Friedrich Gretsch and continued by his son and grandson, Fred and Fred Jr., originally made banjos, but is more famous today for its electric guitars.

Bill and Reg May, two Australian brothers and luthiers, founded the Maton company which makes acoustic guitars.

The late Bernardo Chavez Rico began his career as a banjo and ukulele maker but went on to develop a distinctive line of electric guitars through his company, B.C. Rich.

Dana Bourgeois is a luthier who specializes in acoustic guitars; Jol Dantzig is an American luthier and one of the founders of Hamer Guitars; Paul Reed Smith, founder of PRS Guitars, makes electric guitars; and Dean Zalinsky is the founder of Dean Guitars.

Other luthiers include Richard Echeverria, Harry Fleishman, Arthur Hansel, Del Langejans, Paul Languedoc, Linda Manzer, Godefroy Maruejouls, Neal Moser, Monty Novotny, Ned Steinberger, Bob Taylor, Carl Thompson, and Rick Turner.

[edit] Bowed string instrument luthiers

To put the bowed stringed luthiers into some sort of manageable order, it is prudent to begin with the purported "inventor" of the violin, Andrea Amati. Amati was originally a lute maker but turned to the new instrument form of violin in the mid 16th century. He was the progenator of the famous Amati family of luthiers active in Cremona Italy until the 18th century. Andrea Amati's son, Nicolò, was himself an important master luthier who had several apprentices of note including Andrea Guarneri, Francesco Ruggieri, Antonio Stradivari, Giovanni Battista Rogeri, Matthias Klotz and possibly Jacob Stainer.

Two other important early luthiers of the violin family were Gasparo da Salò of Brescia Italy and Gasparo Duiffopruggar of Austria who were each originally credited with invention of the first violin. However, this attribute has since been removed but is still often incorrectly cited. da Salò had at least one important apprentice--Giovanni Paolo Maggini who inherited da Salò's business in Brescia upon da Salò's death.

Of those luthiers born in the mid 17th century, there are Giovanni Grancino and Carlo Giuseppe Testore both of whom worked in Milan Italy. From Venice Italy the luthiers Matteo Goffriller, Domenico Montagnana, Sanctus Seraphin and Carlo Annibale Tononi were principals in the Venetian school of violin making (although the latter began his career in Bologna Italy).^[6] The Bergonzi family of luthiers were the successors to the Amati family in Cremona. David Tecchler who was born in Austria later worked in both Venice and Rome.

Important luthiers from the early 18th century include Nicolò Gagliano of Naples Italy, Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi of Milan and Giovanni Battista Guadagnini who roamed throughout Italy during his lifetime. From Austria originally, Leopold Widhalm later established himself in Nürnberg, Germany.

The early 19th century luthiers of the Mirecourt school of violin making in France were the Vuillaume family, Charles Jean Baptiste Collin-Mezin, and Collin-Mezin's son, Charles Collin-Mezin, Jr..

The 20th century luthiers are Mincho Mincheff of Bulgaria; Desiderio Quercetani and Sergio Peresson of Italy; Johannes Finkel (bows) of Switzerland; and William Bartruff and Scott Cao both from the United States.