Karel Dedain – 2014

Description

Karel Dedain was born in 1976 and has been building guitars since 1998. He lives and works in Ghent, Belgium. Initially he was a passionate flamenco guitar player and it was this that triggered his interest in guitar making. He finished his first guitar in 1999 and never stopped. Karel Dedain was trained at the CMB (Centrum voor Muziekinstrumentenbouw) with Walter Verreydt and became a professional luthier in 2006, specialized in classical and flamenco guitars. Since then he met a lot of other great makers and has seen and repaired a lot of great guitars of famous luthiers. Since 2006 Karel also teaches guitar making at the Centre for Musical Instrument Building in Puurs, Belgium, together with Walter Verreydt. He makes about five to six guitars a year, all by hand. One of his specialties is French polishing. His philosophy in guitar construction is not to invent something ‘new’, but seek out what good examples there are from historical luthiers as Torres, Garcia, Arias, Hernandez and to start there. Trying to understand what these great makers did is a big challenge and a very good starting point for searching the own style and sound.
This guitar is a copy (except for the rosette and cypress) of a 1917 guitar by Enrique Garcia. It has eight fan bars, typical for Garcia. Karel respected everything of the original: doming of the soundboard and back and the dimensions. Everyone who played it was impressed by the trebles and balance. The machine heads are by Rodgers.