On its way to us now is a new instrument by Italian maker Luigi Locatto. This will be an instrument of his own design, yet he calls it his “Garcia” model because many of its features rely heavily on a 1904 Garcia that captured his attention several years ago. Like the original instrument, it has a very low body resonance (close to E natural) that produces a sound that is powerful, dark and beautiful. It is an expressive instrument, rich with color and sensitive to change of timbre, like the old Spanish guitars he so much loves.

His instruments are played by a large number of concert artists, and have been used on several recordings, most notably the Naxos release of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s works by Lorenzo Micheli (winner of GFA 1999), and of Shin-ichi Fukuda’s 2007 recording of Barrios and Villa-Lobos for Meister Music. We’re very happy to be working with this fine maker and representing his instruments in the US.

Continue reading to see some great photos of the guitar in progress.

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