Guitar maker Luciano Lovadina. "This job I think is a bit like being a chef. Raw materials are so important". Video interview at his workshop. See here what makes him such a unique guitarrero.

Three features to highlight from him:

INTERPRETATION

The outstanding long notes sustain capacity you can find in both two wood options guitars made by him. This sound feature gives the opportunity to the guitarist to considerably change his interpretations possibilities.
He makes only maple or Brazilian rosewood -Dalbergia Nigra- (both always combined with spruce on top). Don’t ask for another Lovadina guitar wood option, he won’t use any other!
About sound, his bass has weight, has solidity, has depth. His trebles are sharp and focused.
Powerful guitars. Both Mapple and Rosewood guitars fill the room and you feel the sound surrounding you.

AESTHETIC

The polishing in Lovadina guitars is very unique. Lovadina uses a varnish developed by himself during years that when applied to his guitars gives an aesthetic so to speak similar to strings instruments such as violin or cello. It is similar to the oil varnish violin makers apply to their instruments since centuries ago. But still different. It is an oil / French polish mix formula he himself created. The result is not a varnish as “clean” and “perfect” as you can see with the commonly used French polish most of the traditional guitar makers apply nowadays. He perfectly knows about the result is not going to be that “perfect”. But actually, that is what he pursues. He likes that organic feeling this special polishing formula he created gives to the guitar and to the sound. The result is a very personal, “vintage” old instrument look that links to the natural Brazilian and maple tonewood color in a very pleasant and balanced way. Luciano is a very good representation of that special Italian great taste for beauty treatment, aesthetics, design, pleasant equilibrium, and art capacity Italians have made their mark throughout history.

RAW MATERIAL

The raw material Lovadina uses is always of the very highest quality. Really remarkable Brazilian, maple, and spruce quality he has in his private store. Apart of course from the importance it gives to the sound, also it makes his guitars really beautiful and attractive. Hard to see the high-quality maple and Brazilian wood sets he owns in any other guitar maker nowadays.

PLease contact Madera if you are interested in a guitar made by him.

Luciano Lovadina Classical Guitar Workshop

Luciano lovadina's workshop

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION

So next year it’s 40 years since I make guitars. So, it is a long time.
And I think experience is a very important thing in this job.
The knowledge accumulates itself over the years.
And doing this job I think is a bit like being a chef.
For this reason, raw materials are really important.
Of course, you need to know how to use it but to know how to choose it I think is fundamental.
I use only Italian spruce for the top which I personally choose.
I use maple from the Balkans many times which is a wood that is in instruments making history. Cause with this wood is built the bowed string instruments.
And I use Brazilian Rosewood jacaranda da Bahia (Dalbergia nigra).
Which is the most precious wood in the world to make a classical guitar.
Almost impossible to get now and very valuable.
Having said that of course these ingredients should be used in the best possible way.
And about the aesthetic of an instrument is very important I’ve never seen an ugly guitar that sounds good.
I’ve seen beautiful guitars that sound bad but never ugly guitars that sound good.
Therefore, the aesthetic taste goes together with the sound of an instrument.
So an instrument to sound good must also be beautiful.
Cause guitar making is above all an art. It is not only a technique so it is necessary to know how to manage this beauty.
Must have a personal taste and a sense of the beauty of the instrument.
Anyway, I want to say when you take an instrument with your hand and you look at it the instrument must touch your soul.
it shouldn’t leave you cold. It needs to make you feel emotions.
This to be said about the aesthetic side. Cause of the sound side the discourse is deeper and also more complicated.
Cause all the efforts I’ve made in all these years about researching talking about the sound quality, the only winner card possible on the evolution of this instrument, and the researching of a .. better quality in this instrument, try to ennoble the sound make it more musical make it more transparent and profoundness and finally gives a greater musicality to the sound.
Then of course everyone has his taste and everyone makes things from his point of view.
But anyway, I think I have reached that point. I have achieved this sound quality, which is a quality needed to be able to listen to an instrument in a music concert hall. So, to speak the audibility of an instrument strictly begins with the quality of its sound if there is no a good quality of sound there is no a good audibility of the sound.
So, as I’ve always been convinced about it, I always carried on this project and I am really satisfied with what I’ve done and with my work.