"The Luthier at the Tip of Africa"

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Marc Maingard. - "At the Tip of Africa"

Click here to see Marc's background and certification.

30 years of experience as a player and maker.

What does that mean?

When I lived in India as a young 20 year old studying Yoga, Ayurvedic Medicine and Life, I often met up with various sitar, sarod, flute players and other musicians. When I complimented them I would invariably hear them say "Oh I don't play very well, I have only been playing for 10 years or something to that effect, you should hear my master he's been playing for 30 or 50 years." To a 20 year old student of Life these numbers seemed almost unbelievable, but now as I look back in my 53rd year, I begin to understand what experience means.

In my opinion there is little that surpasses experience or the gaining of wisdom in the dedicated
and passionate human being , it was only recently when my mermaid deluxe guitar was being
review by Huw Price of Guitar Magazine of the United Kingdom that I realised the tiny and almost unnoticeable differences that my guitars now have. For example, after I had left my guitar with Huw, he phoned me for some details omitted in the interview, and mentioned how easy he found it playing past the neck joint, and how far his fingers could travel without having to remove his thumb from the back of the neck.

Well, that little something took me many years to arrive at, that extra 6mm (quarter inch) removed in the curve of the heel, combined with a Florentine cutaway, makes for ultimate ease of access to the higher frets. As all my necks are hand carved and shaped, they have progressed from fine to refined and better. This story shows only one aspect of the many, that make up 30 years of experience , which I offer to you in the process of creating your dream guitar.


Click here to view Matthias' story.


Guitarmaker Matthias Roux.

Marc & Matthias at Work.
© Maingard Guitars (2007)
www.maingardguitars.com Page 0225 (20080823)