© 2009-2019 Dirk Janssen Gitaarbouw, luitbouw en reparaties

Regardless whether you are an amateur or professional, an instrument that is tailored to your level and type of playing, will stimulate you and bring more depth into your playing.

Finding that particular acoustic guitar or lute is a matter of trying out various instruments, such as those described on this site.

Unfortunately, the universal instrument that contains all sound colours does not exist. Each instrument has its own sound image and it is therefore always a (often long) quest for the player to find the instrument that suits his best

Working on a top of an acoustic guitar

Editing the top of an acoustic guitar

for years to come.

Still, it remains a challenge to further refine appearance, playability and sound and to build a "better" musical instrument.

Luthier Dirk Janssen

In 1975 I started building guitars in Idstein (Germany). Several years I worked as an apprentice "Zupfinstrumentmacher" with master builder Reinhold Seiffert.

After obtaining my guitar building diploma, I returned to the Netherlands and to Belgium now, where I developed my career as a "luthier" / "guitar builder".

To me the building is like a virus

you become infected with and never get rid of. It is a fascinating process to work with the guitarist or lute player to choose the basic materials and to create an instrument that the player will enjoy

Idstein-Lenzhahn

Building a fine instrument starts with listening.

Listening to the raw wood and how the parts of the instrument respond to each other .

I use traditional means such as tap tuning and listening, but also more modern means such as frequency measurements with the laptop. This makes the properties of an instrument visible more accurately. Ultimately, based on this data, personal intuition and experience, the instrument can be further optimised.

For you as a guitar or lute player, however, it remains a matter of playing and listening ... and then getting the good feeling with that particular guitar or lute.

I do hope welcoming you in my workshop.

Typical frequency curve of a classical guitar.