Luthiers
Dr. Susanne Schnitzer shares her memories growing up in the Kirschnek family. Grandfather Franz Krischnek, founder of Kirschnek String Instruments, was a businessman with worldwide connections (many of them to the United States) while his daughter Ilse Fischer managed the rest. She took the...
Ewald Hannabach can recall nearly every detail about the life of the luthiers in the famous music corner in the Egerland, which served as the center of production of stringed instruments for centuries. Ewald was able to witness firsthand the move of the Hoyer guitar shop from Schönbach/Luby to the...
Thomas Hoyer is the product manager of string instruments and worldwide distribution for Paesold and Höfner. After receiving his master degree in violin making in 1998, he started in the Höfner master workshop. As a product specialist he later established production of violins in China and is now...
Hagen Weise was born in Dresden. He shares his experience of his apprenticeship at Musima in a state run production in East Germany before 1989. Per day, four-hundred classical guitars were built until the material allotted for the day was used up. The guitar makers sometimes finished their work at...
Sebastian Dirr has relatives that play string instruments professionally, so it was only natural that they welcomed it when Sebastian decided to become a bow maker. After studying musicology, he started an apprenticeship at Paesold in 1988. Sebastian specializes in modern and historic bows. For...
Karl Hoyer was born in Schönbach/Luby in the Czech Republic to a family of violin makers. As a child, he helped in his father’s workshop, and in 1944, went to the school of violin making in Schönbach where music lessons were part of the curriculum. When the family moved to Bubenreuth, Karl worked...
Günter Lobe is a violin maker who is known for his faithful copies of Stradivari and other famous violins. He was an apprentice from 1977 to 1980 in the Ernst Heinrich Roth workshop in Bubenreuth, Germany and in 2008 Günter became master of the guild of string instrument makers with about 50...
Hans Dörner grew up in the music town of Schönbach/Luby surrounded by musical instrument makers - including his grandfather the violin maker and tonewood dealer Joseph Trasny and his uncle violin maker Hans Trasny, who was master of the guild until 1945. Hans lived in Luby until 1946 and worked for...
Tim Shaw is the Chief Engineer-Guitars for Fender Musical Instruments, helping the company create guitars, pickups and other products. Tim’s career began when Charlie Wicks hired him to repair guitars for his retail store. He found his way to R&D at Gibson in Kalamazoo in 1978 and worked with...
Jens Ritter is the innovative luthier who gained wide attention after a three page article about his instruments ran in a 1996 issue of Guitar & Bass magazine. A few years later, he attended the NAMM Show and his business grew. Among his most favorite projects so far are the instruments he...