Wolfgang Jellinghaus – A Life Devoted to the Classical Guitar
Wolfgang Jellinghaus (1951–2024) was one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary classical guitar making — a German luthier who dedicated his life to understanding and faithfully recreating the instruments of the great historical masters. Born in Dortmund into a family already immersed in the guitar world, he spent decades bridging the gap between authentic historical craftsmanship and the needs of today's players. His passing in 2024 marked the end of a singular chapter in the wider story of classical guitar makers.
From Dortmund to the Workshop: Early Life and Formation
Wolfgang Jellinghaus was born in 1951 in Dortmund, Germany, the son of Walter Jellinghaus, himself a guitar maker. Growing up surrounded by wood, tools, and the scent of varnish, Wolfgang began learning the craft at the age of fourteen — an unusually early start that shaped everything to come. His father's workshop was not merely a business but an education in itself, instilling in the young Wolfgang a respect for tonal tradition and the patience that serious lutherie demands.
In 1978, Wolfgang took over management of the family retail business, Musik Jellinghaus GmbH, which had grown into a well-regarded operation in the German guitar trade. By 1983 his ambitions had expanded into manufacturing: he founded Martinez Guitars, designing the brand's first line of instruments and building a distribution network that would eventually reach more than thirty countries. The Martinez venture demonstrated his remarkable ability to operate across both the commercial and the artisanal worlds of guitar making — an unusual combination that gave him a broader perspective than most workshop-only luthiers.
Milestones of Music: The Independent Workshop Years
In 2013, Jellinghaus sold Musik Jellinghaus GmbH and made the decisive move of his career: he established an independent boutique workshop under the name Milestones of Music, initially based in China, where he could focus entirely on the kind of careful, historically informed lutherie that had always fascinated him. Freed from the demands of mass production and retail management, he threw himself into researching, reconstructing, and reinterpreting the instruments of the masters he most admired — Antonio de Torres, Hermann Hauser, José Ramírez, René Lacote, and Domingo Esteso among them.
