Siccas Luthiers · Our Story

It begins before the shop. Before the studio. Before the 680,000 subscribers. It begins with a father, two sons, and a love of the guitar that couldn't stay contained. Today, it lives in a workshop in Karlsruhe and in carefully chosen partner manufactories across the world — most of them in China.

The story of Siccas Luthiers — watch before you read, or after.

A Professor, a Soloist, a Builder — and the two Sons

Mario Sicca was a guitarist, a teacher, and a builder. He performed as a soloist. He taught at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule, where he shaped the musical understanding of a generation of students. And in the hours that weren't given to performance or teaching, he built guitars and collected them. He was drawn not just to the music the instrument produced, but to the instrument itself — to the question of what makes one guitar speak differently from another, what happens in the wood and the construction and the varnish that creates a voice instead of just a sound.

His sons Mirco and Manuel grew up inside that question. They didn't merely grow up with music in the house — they grew up with guitars in their hands, guitars on the walls, guitars being studied and discussed and compared and played from an early age. They developed what is perhaps the rarest thing a guitar house can have: a trained ear and an educated eye, formed not in a classroom but in a lifetime of daily contact with extraordinary instruments.

That formation is where Siccas Luthiers begins. Long before it existed as a product line, it existed as a standard — a set of demands that Mirco and Manuel had absorbed from their father, from the instruments they had handled, and from years of conversations about tone and construction and playability that had accumulated long before Roonstrasse 31 existed.

Roonstrasse 31, Karlsruhe — where it all began.

From a Collection to a Community to a Question

In 2012, Manuel built a website. The idea was straightforward: exceptional classical guitars were almost impossible to find online, and they deserved a proper home — a place where they could be photographed, described, presented on video, and made accessible to players anywhere in the world. The response was immediate.

In June 2013, Siccas Guitars opened its doors at Roonstrasse 31 in Karlsruhe — two floors, a chandelier, some vintage armchairs, and around thirty guitars. The collection grew. A YouTube channel launched. Concerts were recorded. The Weekly Guitar Meeting began. A community of players formed that would eventually reach 680,000 subscribers and more than 100,000 views per day — the largest classical guitar community on the internet.

Through all of it — through every historical guitar by Torres and Hauser and Friederich and García and Romanillos that passed through the studio — a question kept growing louder.

"What if we made one ourselves?"

What Twelve Years of Handling the World's Finest Guitars Teaches You

Not every guitar house reaches the point where this question becomes serious. Most are content to curate, to source, to represent. But Siccas Guitars had spent years doing something that most shops don't: studying instruments with the depth and rigour of luthiers, not just the enthusiasm of collectors.

They had held enough guitars built in the tradition of Torres' direct successors to understand what Spanish fan bracing achieves and where its limits lie. They had played enough doubletops to understand what the Nomex sandwich construction makes possible. They had spent enough time with lattice guitars to know what they gain in projection and what they give up in warmth.

They knew what they wanted. They knew what the finest instruments in the world had in common. The question was whether they could build it. The answer was yes. And the result was Siccas Luthiers.

Together with the classical guitarist Thu Le.

Designed in Karlsruhe. Built by the World's Best. Verified by Hand.

The decision Mirco and Manuel made was more thoughtful than simply commissioning a factory. They would design the instruments in-house — drawing on their accumulated knowledge of construction principles, tonal requirements, and ergonomic details — and take those designs to carefully selected workshops and experienced luthiers around the world.

We want to be open about where our instruments are built: most of them are made in China, in workshops we have visited in person and have worked closely with for years. We found manufactories whose craftsmanship, structures, and working conditions we know well — and whose instruments, once they arrive in Karlsruhe and pass through our workshop, hold up to the standard that twelve years of handling the world's finest guitars has made non-negotiable for us.

Every guitar that resulted returns to Karlsruhe. To the workshop where Giorgio Amorella and Dániel Füzesi — both trained luthiers, with extensive experience in repairs, restoration, and building — examine each instrument for playability, balance, and tonal nuance before it is approved for release. This final step is not a formality. It is the guarantee that what leaves Karlsruhe meets the standard that twelve years of handling the world's finest guitars has made non-negotiable.

Jonathan Singgih Pranoto, who leads Siccas Luthiers GmbH as its CEO, brings over twelve years of experience as a classical guitarist to the brand's direction. His musical understanding shapes how the instruments are conceived and evaluated — not as a business proposition from the outside, but as a player who knows precisely what he wants to feel and hear when he picks up a concert guitar.

The Instruments

Each model in the Siccas Luthiers range exists because a specific question was asked and a specific answer was found — not because a market segment needed filling, but because a player asked: what would this guitar have to do, and how would it have to be built, to do it?

Creation Doubletop — Cedar & Spruce

Built on the Nomex doubletop principle — a sandwich construction significantly lighter and stiffer than a solid top — the Creation achieves a dynamic range and tonal transparency that traditional construction rarely matches. The cedar version is warm, punchy, and immediate. The spruce version is clear, lyrical, and singing. Both share wenge back and sides, a slightly elevated fingerboard, and a hard shell case. Available in standard (65 cm) and compact (64 & 63 cm) scale.

Synthesis Doubletop — Cedar & Spruce

Where the Creation draws on the Dammann tradition, the Synthesis asks a different question: what does the doubletop construction sound like when it is built toward the tonal ideals of the Spanish concert tradition? The answer is brilliant, clearly articulated trebles, a strong midrange, and a transparent projection that carries without force. Finished in nitrocellulose, which allows the wood to resonate as freely as possible.

Legacy Doubletop — Cedar & Spruce

The fullest expression of the doubletop ideal in the Siccas Luthiers range. Entirely French polished — the finish of the great Spanish and German masters — it achieves a tonal depth and surface resonance that no other finish can match. The voice is powerful and velvety: dark, rounded trebles with remarkable sustain; a projection that fills the room without effort. One of the loudest doubletops we build, yet never loud at the expense of musicality.

Recital Traditional — Spruce & Cedar

The Spanish tradition in its fullest expression. Ramírez-style fan bracing. Indian rosewood back and sides. A voice that is direct, expressive, and warm — strong in projection, nuanced in colour, true to the classical repertoire. For players who want the character of the traditional instrument without compromise.

Craftsman by Stephen Eden — Lattice

A lattice-braced instrument with the projection and dynamic clarity that lattice construction uniquely enables. Built by luthier Stephen Eden, whose understanding of the construction's demands is as thorough as his execution is precise. A concert instrument for players who need every seat in the hall to hear them.

The Continuation of a Story

Siccas Luthiers is not the end of something. It is what the story becomes when it has enough depth to build on itself.

It began with a professor in Stuttgart who loved the guitar deeply enough to build one. It continued with two brothers who inherited that love and used it to create the world's largest classical guitar community. It found its form in the knowledge that accumulated from every Torres and Hauser and Friederich that passed through Karlsruhe — in the understanding of what makes an instrument great that can only come from years of daily contact with greatness.

Today, Siccas Luthiers guitars are played by professional guitarists on stages across Europe and beyond — and by players around the world who needed a concert-level instrument built to a standard shaped by the finest guitars ever made.

That is what Mario Sicca gave his sons. That is what his sons built into the instruments that carry the family name.