Overview: Master
guitar maker Gernot Wagner has received enormous international acclaim
over the years for his revolutionary idea to employ Nomex technology in
doubletop guitar construction. (Wagner's idea was first adopted and
popularized by his friend and colleague, Matthias Dammann, who built the
first doubletop guitar using this unique technology). See
"Innovative Guitar Designs" in the March 2012 issue of
Acoustic Guitar
magazine (pages 3 and 4 in the online article) for further information
about Gernot Wagner's ground breaking contribution to double top
technology.
We were honored that Gernot Wagner chose our company,
Guitars International, to be the first dealer to import into the U.S.A.
one of his early double top guitars with a Nomex core. We displayed
this guitar at the 1997 Guitar Foundation of America Festival in La
Jolla, California. Gernot Wagner joined us at that G.F.A. Festival and
was greatly gratified, as were we, to witness the musical sensation his
double top guitar created. We sold that revelatory guitar within an hour
of its unveiling. Today, as Gernot Wagner's exclusive North American
dealer, we are proud to observe that Gernot Wagner's magnificent sounding, much
sought after, very powerful, meticulously crafted double top classical
guitars represent a significant bench mark against which all innovative
twenty-first century classical guitars must be judged.
Jason
Vieaux; Susana Prieto and Alexis
Muzurakis of
Duo Melis, Julia and Christian Zielinski of
Artis GuitarDuo, and
José Manuel Dapena:are just six of the internationally acclaimed
concert artists choosing to perform and record with Gernot Wagner double
top (sometimes referred to as sandwich top or composite top) classical
guitars. View a
video of classical guitarist
Jason Vieaux performing on his spruce/cedar double top Gernot Wagner guitar. View a
video of
Duo Melis performing on their cedar/cedar Wagner double top guitars, a
video of
Artis GuitarDuo performing on their cedar/cedar Wagner double top classical guitars, a
video of
Miriam Rodriguez Brullova performing on her cedar/cedar Wagner double top guitar, and a
video of
José Manuel Dapena performing on his cedar/cedar Wagner double top guitar. .
Most recently Bill Kanengiser has been performing on his Gernot Wagner double top guitar.
Capable
of projecting to the back of the most challenging concert hall, we
believe Gernot Wagner's most recent double top guitars to be the most
sonically beautiful, most musically flexible, most natural sounding of
the latest generation of double top guitars: lush, round, clear, well
balanced sound throughout all registers, smooth creamy tonal transition
from note to note, quick response, broad color palette, excellent
separation, sustain, depth and density of sound. Gernot Wagner's concert
guitars are an excellent choice for concerto and related ensemble work
where electronic amplification is either artistically undesirable or
impracticable.
In sum, Gernot
Wagner's double top classical guitars represent a major contribution
both to refined music making and the art of lutherie in general. No
wonder one of our delighted customers proclaimed his new Gernot Wagner
double top classical guitar to be "the golden fleece of concert
guitars."
Guitars International has represented Gernot Wagner
in North America since 1995. Though Gernot Wagner's waiting list is
extensive, Guitars International, Gernot Wagner's exclusive North
American dealer, is honored to be able to offer from time to time a rare
new example of this consummate artist's work. (
Learn more about this classical guitar maker).
See also the Summer 2016 issue of Classical Guitar magazine, pp 48-50, for an interview with master guitar maker Gernot Wagner about his groundbreaking work.
Materials: African blackwood sides and back; spr./Nomex/ced. double top soundboard construction;
Rodgers
L201 precision tuning machine heads (the finest in the world) with
nickel silver side plates, kidney shaped ebony buttons; perfectly
executed V graft head to neck joint; moderately elevated fingerboard,
20th first string fret; unusually easy neck contour and action set up; spectacular French polish
of shellac finish with gorgeous optic depth; exceptional materials
throughout; impeccable workmanship (among the very finest in the world);
650mm string length, hardshell case.