Luciano Maggi

Starting in 1981, coming from a strong background education in arts, history and painting gained during his formative years at “Accademia di Belle Arti’ in Florence, Tuscany, and based on solid ground work in research and measurements of historic instruments from museums and private collections, Luciano works on restoration and reconstruction of many instruments such as of lute, baroque guitar, viola da gamba and archlute.

In 1991 Luciano begins his self-taught jurney in classical guitar making, initially strongly inspired by classical guitar Spanish masters such as, among others, Torres, Garcia and Simplicio, but shortly after he develops his own classical guitar making system, starting a long journey which to this day is deeply rooted in the constant research and development of the potentials of this instrument.

A notable milestone in this journey is the patenting of his his “registro di tavola degli strumenti a corda” system in 1999, which allowed for tonal changes of his guitars by acting upon the fundamental note of the top, and was featured in many articles on major music magazines at the time.

In 2006 Luciano begins his investigations on enhancement of the acoustic characteristics of the classical guitar by employing synthetic materials, designing a new type of internal bracing in 2008, which enhances volume and projection beyond the capability of a traditional classical guitar construction. He also uses a variation of this type of bracing in his bowed string instruments, with excellent results.

This design has been further improved throughout the years, with priority given to bringing the guitar’s tonal character closer to a more traditional type of sound, still maintaining the results achieved in terms of volume and projection.

A major breakthrough was achieved in 2012, by employing an internal diaphragm structure to further enhance volume, projection, sustain and tonal character of the classical guitar.

At concerts where Luciano’s ‘Shaula’ guitars are played it is not uncommon to hear the audience commenting on how close to them the sound seems to come from, and how clear it is, not matter where they are sitting in the venue.

This diaphragm structure also allows for tonal changes of the instruments by allowing to redirect the internal air flow through small internal tuning holes.

Luciano currently keeps his research ongoing everyday, in his Tuscan hill set laboratory.

Luciano Maggi and his latest classical guitar offerings can be found here