This 2 day guitar show brings some of the best luthiers from around the world into one conference center. The 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show was held in October in the vibrant city of Berlin. About 135 acoustic and electric guitar builders were present in a roughly 60% to 40% ratio respectively.
The show is a buffet of jaw-dropping craftsmanship guitar porn!
You can’t come back from a show like this and not expect more from yourself as a builder.
In this article, I highlight some of my personal favourite electric guitars and their builders. After talking with them, one thing became very clear to me, they are passionate about their craft and proud to show their creative works. They are also some of the nicest and friendliest people I had the privilege to meet.
Their passion for their craft shines through their work, sorry for the corny gliché, but it really does! Each builder has a unique style and personality and those characteristics are expressed in their craft. These guitars are as much art as they are musical instruments.
I hope you’ll discover some new guitar builders and be as inspired by their creative work as I was.
Here are some of my personal highlights from the 2016 Holy Grail Guitar Show (in alphabetical order):
Alejandro Ramirez (o3 guitar & bass), SPAIN
Alejandro’s guitars have beautiful organic body shapes. It’s not easy to deviate so much from the norm and still make it work but he has indeed achieved this beautifully.
If I could leave the show with one guitar, this one is it!
Alex Dmytriw (Darius Guitarz), FRANCE
The Explorer is one of my favourite body shapes and from the looks of it, so is Alex’s. He’s customized it and personalized it. Merci Alex 😉
The length of this beautiful fretboard contains an engraved story, maybe it should be called a “storyboard” 🙂
Csaba Benedek (Fibenare Guitars Co.), HUNGARY
Beautiful guitars and the very friendly Csaba.
Marco Omar Viola (M.O.V.Guitars), ITALY
The word I would use to describe Marco’s guitars is “sensual”!
Michael Schillhof (Beast of the East), GERMANY
Some of the most exotic looking guitars and company name at the show 🙂 Although Michael’s guitars look dangerous, they are actually surprisingly, very ergonomic to play.
Mike Potvin (Potvin Guitars), CANADA
Beautifully made guitars and one of the nicest guys you’ll meet…, of course, he’s Canadian 🙂
Omer Deutsch, (OD Guitars), ISRAEL
Omer’s beautiful designs incorporate geometries found in nature.
Pablo Massa (Pablo Massa Guitars), ARGENTINA
Pablo presented his “Famiglia” project. It consists of making three guitars from one piece of body blank. Yes, you read that correctly! The resulting guitars are symbolic representations of a father, mother and child, hence the “famiglia”.
Peter Naglitsch (Peter Naglitsch Luthier), SWEDEN
Peter’s guitars are simply beautiful creations!
Extras
Michael Spalt
Nik Huber
Sascha Proske & Robby Rybol
Michael Spalt
See you next year Berlin!
Great article, and thanks for sharing!
Thanks Mike! Hope to see you and your guitars there one day.
Thank you very much for including me in the article, It was very nice to have you as visitor and feel the good feedback from you. I hope to see you soon in another great guitar show, maybe NAMM ?? 😉
It was great to meet you Alejandro and to see your beautiful guitars first hand. I hope to see you again soon 🙂
Merci pour l’article 🙂
A bientôt.
Alex.
Heureux d’avoir fais ta connaissance Alex. A bientôt j’espere 🙂