Description
During the years 1980-83, Gary Southwell studied at the London College of Furniture, under the wonderful Herbert Schwarz. In 1983 he set up his own workshop in Nottingham specializing in 19th century guitars, the only maker specializing in this field at that time.
Gary has researched, and continued to research and document many instruments from around the world. He has worked on many public and private collections, including those at Edinburgh University, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Paris Conservatoire and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In 1991 he received a grant by the British Council to study guitars in Russia, and spent many fascinating weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg studying collections and talking to makers there at a time when Russia, or the USSR, was not easily accessible to the rest of the world.
Gary has worked with many leading guitarists who perform 19th century music. He has written articles and lectured about period guitars, and has acted as a consultant for other makers and collectors interested in this period. He began to shift his focus to modern guitar making in 1992 with his own concert guitars and started developing my ‘A Series Guitar’ with David Starobin.
This guitar is based on a Lacôte Decacorde 10-string guitar but the customer Gary made it for at the time wanted a different neck arrangement from the original so he created the neck/head in a slightly Panormo style. The soundboard of this guitar is made from spruce and the guitar has maple back and sides, a mahogany neck with a beautiful and distinctive maple head fixed by a superb V joint. It has an ebony fingerboard and bridge, rosewood purflings, 18 brass frets, Baker style machines and a 63 cm string length. Very good condition.
Luthier: | Gary Southwell |
Construction year: | 1986 |
Top: | Spruce |
Back and sides: | Maple |
Scale: | 630 mm |
Nut: | 52 mm |