The Guitar, the Witch and the Workshop

La Befana. What a nice lady she is!

On January 1, 2011, I kicked off the year with an exciting ambition. I wanted to locate, and meet a local Italian guitar maker (luthier is the technical term). That's because I recently picked up my classical (Spanish) guitar after nearly 15 years of not playing this style, and have been trying to regain some of my long-lost chops (slang for playing ability). There's just no sound quite like the classical guitar. I was immediately attached again.

My search happily landed me at Michele Della Giustina's, who is right in the very province of Treviso. He's an extremely talented luthier that specializes in concert guitars for the classical style. His capolavoro is making Spruce tops. For the non-musician reading this, that doesn't say much, I know. But take my word for it, it says a lot to those of us who play classical and acoustic guitar in general.

Three days later on January 4th, I took a ride up to Michele's work shop with the family. We were early and stopped off for a walk through the center of Vittorio Veneto, where Michele lives. That's when I ran into the scary witch in the picture above. In Italy, Befana is celebrated January 6 and that's why we see witches everywhere. I wont go into the details of this national holiday but its primary basis is the Epiphany. The tradition is for kids to receive presents from the good ole witch, kind of a second Christmas. People also light tremendous bonfires and it's the one day the municipalities allow you to burn just about anything, including your rubbish in the backyard.

One of Michele's beautiful guitars. Spruce grows locally.

Once we overcame the shock from that witch, we made our way over to Michele's workshop. That blessed man let me play his top-of-the-line concert guitars. He is a very nice man and I've really taken to him. He invited me back in February to play his soon-to-be-finished masterpieces. One similar to what he's making now is in the photo on the left. You can be sure I'll be taking him up on his invitation. Actually, I've already been back to see him so he could make some adjustments to my current Esteve (and so I could play his guitars again).

Mine plays and sounds better now, but I will not pretend I'm not hoping the Befana will make me the proud owner of a Della Giustina custom handmade guitar next January :) Unless of course one of you fine folks out there would like to surprise me? You can give Michele a call and tell him you're giving me a gift.