Mario Garrone Classical Guitar 1989

Quite possibly the most interesting guitar I have ever seen; and the story of the luthier is just as intriguing.

This instrument was designed and constructed by Mario Garrone, an Italian luthier and scientist. He has been experimenting with different guitar build types for 70 years; and published a book on his scientific testing process for building guitars. He is currently in his early 90's and still building!

This particular instrument has an amazingly clear and balanced voice. Mario used the "kasha-style" bracing for this guitar and included some experimental features such as Lead weights in strategic locations to "create an acoustic impedance to keep the oscillating energy of the string from being partially transferred to the nut, at the expense of the available energy at the bridge. This stratagem improves the instrument loudness and sustain, but it obviously requires the inclusion of counterbalancing lead in the tail block, in order to prevent the instrument from weighing down on the player’s left arm." It's all in his book "Classical Guitar Design" by Giuseppe Cuzzucoli and Mario Garrone.

This guitar has a 650mm Scale and 53mm nut; very fine to fine grain Spruce soundboard and beautiful volcanic dried in place Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. Original Gold plated Schaller tuning machines still work perfectly, original bone nut and original bone saddle are still in place. Great tone color, volume and sustain. Made in Acqui Terme, Italy.

It has one repair, a soundboard centerline separation that was professionally repaired and is completely stable. The headstock has a small chip and there are typical marks here and there but overall this guitar is in very good condition.

This amazing instrument is not only a great playing and sounding guitar, but a fantastic piece of history and a testament to a great man; thank you Mario!