Over the centuries it has adapted to composers' needs and musicians' tastes, to new styles of performing music, to progress in the field of strings, glues and varnishes, keeping pace with fashion. And so it has avoided oblivion.

After fully 35 years spent observing, studying and restoring guitars, encouraged by colleagues and friends, we now feel the need to make our experiences public. These range from the period of ostentation, the 17th century, down to the early experiences of industrial manufacture in the 20th century.

Without making any claims in historical or musicological terms, we dedicate the first book in the series to guitar artisans, the luthiers who invented the instrument. From 1650 to 1950, from Voboam to Bouchet, by way of Pons, Lacote and Laprevotte, who graced the wonderful 19th century. In all aboput 50 magnificent instruments are proposed, almost all previously unpublished. Projects, innovations, transformations and acoustic theories are examined as they contribute to the evolution of the guitar.

The instruments published have been carefully selected, and we invite you to discover them one by one, to trace their evolution, to reconstruct the work of a great maestro, of his school, of his pupils and followers, to look at what these artists have succeeded in passing down to us, their influence on other schools, on other luthiers, on the very development of the guitar itself.

Sinier de Ridder