It might be time for a shoulder update. And I took this photo because for maybe 2 or 3 weeks I can play the guitar like this again. At first very shortly but the time increases and now I am able to play comfortably for 10 Minutes and more. I'm getting there! This is a major step for me since I couldn't play comfortably since the beginning of october last year. By now I am fully aware that a lot of mobility in the shoulder is needed, not only the ability to move the shoulder and arm upwards but also the inward rotation. Which is something I am still struggling with and will do for a fe ..read more

 This is the Seagull. Guitar #32 was finished back in 2021. During the time I did not share much about it. It was build as a side project in my head I called it my "sanity project" because it kept my spirit afloat during the pandemic lockdown. I wrote about this before so just to summarise it in one sentence I was working from home during that time, on my desk, and made 3 guitars partly and one guitar as a whole in that workspace. The one guitar build completely at my home is the Seagull.  The concept for this guitar is worth explaining. It is a scaled down slopeshoulder dread w ..read more

This is just a quick update on how things are going in my shop. I don`t won`t to overload this blog with personal stuff but I feel like this is rather relevant.  Around July last year I started to feel some discomfort raising my arm above my head. This got more and more painful until I went to see a doctor in mid october.  After X-ray photos having been taken, ultrasonic sounding and finally magnetic resonance tomography I was diagnosed with a "frozen shoulder" syndrome. That means the joint capsule starts to ignite and shrinks as a result of the ignition. The capsule gets hard ..read more

These are the guitars I build in 2023. It´s been an exciting year with guitars I very much enjoyed building. Some challenges along the way, as usual, and some great highlight. More on that soon. Also I realise that I am pretty behind on introducing new guitars here. Hopefully that will come soon. So here´s a quick overview. First is a magpie small jumbo model in spruce and Indian rosewood.  Followed by the Oystercatcher, my first comissioned Martin style build. Something I am going to do more in the future. Next comes an Oystercatcher with a redwood top and Malaysian blackwood back and ..read more

Yes, it looks like a Martin. I very happily agree on that. But then if you look very closely and if you´d like to dive into the rabbithole of OM guitars and compare different makers, you´d surely agree that they all have slightly different body shapes even though the differences are subtle. Other things like soundhole placement and rosette dimensions can have a distinct impact on the overall appearance of the instrument as well. Therefore I would call this guitar "Martin inspired". Some time ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on a very very special guitar. It was a Martin D-28 from 1952 ..read more

A short scale Jay, a small jumbo build for the Guitar Basar in Osnabrück. I really enjoyed this one and was excited to hear how this model will react as a short scale version. So far I only build them with a longer 650 mm scale lenth. Usually I very much enjoy the 630 mm shorter scale for steel strings and with the final result I found that prooved again. It might be the reduced string tension or the slightly smaller distance between the frets that works for me, I don´t know. Maybe both.  A small side story about the soundboard I have been using on this guitar. At the end of 2019 ..read more

 This is probably the most exciting post since I have started this blog. After 8 years in Oldenburg I am now moving my shop to my hometown Bremen. Today I got the keys to my new two room shop located in the "Tabakquartier" in Bremen, Woltmershausen. This is a new and exciting chapter in my career and I can`t wait to get settled in and make some dust in the new shop.   I will be pretty busy the next weeks but I am hopeful to get the move done within a short time. Lots of plans in my head at the moment!  ..read more

 So the first guitar to leave not the shop but my home office is "The Goose" my new slope shoulder dreadnought prototype. Although I only did the french polish on this guitar at home it felt like it should never leave. And it wasn`t suppost to because this guitar has not been a custom order. And since I am more and more dircovering the flatpick (or plectrum if you will) and it`s music I became almost obsessed with building a dreadnought model. But unfortunately it left very soon after I finished it. I know this is totally exaggerating, I am incredibly happy and it went to the best home I ..read more

One of the guitars 2022 was a short scale Robin in Alpine spruce and African blackwood. It was a pretty special build not only because of the exclusive quality of the woods but also because it was the first short scale version of this model I had build and this although I originally designed it as a short scale guitar. So I was eager to find out if my first draft of this body shape would be a good fit for the shorter 630 mm of string length. I fact as it turned out it worked very pleasingly indeed.  On behalf of my client we agreed on a understated elegance for this one. A strong foc ..read more

Here is something up to date, the guitar I am currently working on. It is a 000-28 Style guitar, my new OM body shape with a short 630 mm scale. Alpine spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides and very much Martin inspired. At least in terms of the asthetics. The soundboard and bracing is selected to make a very light top, the weight of the finally braced and voiced top was 190g which is pretty light for a 2,8 mm spruce soundboard. The rosewood will add a little weight (at least compared to mahogany for example) but that is more then welcome to balance the neck, which will have a two wa ..read more