Acoustic Guitar Information

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Harry started building his first instrument when he was fourteen, but built his first legitimate instrument, an electric upright bass for bowing, in 1969.  In the late Seventies he lied his way into Thinking Plague as keyboard player.  During this tenure he built an ultralight, minimalist bass for Bob Drake.  This bass morphed into the BASSIC IV, a right-hand tuning bass weighing five pounds.

By the mid-seventies he was focusing much of his energy on acoustic guitars and electric basses.  Over the next couple of decades he developed the voice of his guitars and began experimenting with new shapes, multi-wood tops, multiple soundholes, asymmetry, and unusual bracings to further refine the unique voice for which he was aiming.  The aesthetic elements fell into place as a means of interacting more playfully with the instrument visually, but the quality of the voice was always most important.

George Holmes of the Inkspots plays both fretted and fretless Bassic-IV basses.  Dave Pomeroy, a Nashville bassist on more Grammies than you can imagine, has played one of Harry's EUBs for about 25 years.  Other people, notable and merely worthy, also play the over 340 instruments from Harry's shop.

In addition to building custom instruments, he designs for several companies, notably Fender Musical Instrument Corp, and spends about half of his time teaching guitarmaking and directing the Luthiers School International in Sebastapol, California.  He is currently writing a book on advanced guitar making theories and techniques for luthiers, players, and collectors, and trying to find a second verse for one of his songs.

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Ukulele Hall of Fame Expo 2004 - I had the pleasure of playing a few of Augustino LoPrinzi's ukulele at the expo show September 2004 and the are amazing. Light, responsive and reasonable priced for the quality they are. they could easily cost $1000 more than the current price.

The 3K model Tenor is at the top of my list of ukuleles to get.

Here is a nice article titled The Duke of Uke from the St. Petersburg Times.

The History of Augustino LoPrinzi Guitars & Ukuleles

Through the years, Augustino has consulted or designed stringed instruments for many companies including Guild, Martin, Kramer, Fender and others. Many of today’s well-known guitar-builders got their start helping out in Augustino’s shop, observing and learning from the master.

In the beginning Augustino learned by trial and error. He had discovered early on that it is not only the completion of nearly 300 steps to building a good guitar, but the sequence used to complete them.

The importance of using high quality seasoned woods is essential, Augie insists. He’s invested much of his money in wood, knowing that the price of it was always going up and the quality kept going down. On the average, instruments he builds today are from woods ranging in age from four to eight years. The absolute minimum age of the wood he uses for instrument construction is two years—going up in age to the stash of Brazilian rosewood which he purchased in 1963.

Augie has always known the importance of persistence and hard work. He has lived by his father's words, "Do good work and the money will come." According to him he is still waiting on the money, but he still continues to strive to build the best possible guitar he can build. Whether the money comes or not Augustino says he still loves what he is doing.

Fratello "Brother"

The Fratello model began as a joint venture between classical guitarmaker Augi Lo Prinzi and Bob Benedetto. In 1979, both Augi and Bob had their shops in the same industrial park in Clearwater, Florida. Augi and Bob were to form a partnership to make the Fratello brand - an affordable archtop guitar that would compete in the marketplace. The original prototype was made by Bob Benedetto. Cindy Benedetto chose the name Fratello which means "brother" in Italian - to symbolize the two Italian makers. Both liked the name.

At the time the prototype was finished, (which originally had "Fratello" inlaid on the headstock but was later changed to the Benedetto logo by Bob in the very early '80s), Augi's existing workload was all he could handle. The partnership was never formed and Bob decided to introduce the Fratello as a new model to his existing Benedetto line.

The Fratello model went on to become one of Benedetto's top models, played by Jack Wilkins, Royce Campbell, Adrian Ingram, the late Carlo Pes, Jack Petersen and Leo Kottke, among many other notable guitarists.

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As a teen living in Nazareth, I became fiercely inspired by meeting many of Martin’s finest craftsmen. My desire to learn how to make guitars became a reality after my introduction to Dick Boak. In the ensuing years Dick and I renovated the “Church of Art” in the center of Nazareth, and we built many unique experimental instruments. In addition to being Dick’s residence, the “Church of Art” was a guitar studio, concert hall and art gallery. It was a great inspiration to me while I was perfecting my craft as a luthier. This is where I constructed my first guitar in the mid ‘70s. Though he doesn’t reside there any more, Dick still owns the “Church,” and I presently teach my archtop design and construction classes there.

Dick introduced me to Chris Martin in the late ‘70s. Our mutual passion for the guitar helped us establish a strong and lasting friendship. In 1993 I was introduced to another great influence in my life, Robert Benedetto. After several years of close and intensive work with Bob, my passion and understanding for archtop guitars matured.

As fate would have it, I decided in 1995 that the time was right to venture out on my own. My desire was to create a “guitar for the player.” This was the beginning of American Archtop Guitars of which I am the sole proprietor.

I approached Chris Martin in 2001 with my vision for blending Martin’s extraordinary craftsmanship and process with my particular archtop guitar designs. Chris embraced the notion of our collaboration and after great deliberation we ventured forward. With the support of Chris and the cooperative efforts of Dick Boak, Tim Teel and all of the employees at Martin, I was able to reach what I consider to be a major pinnacle in my career – the introduction of the Martin American Archtop Guitar. It’s fair and honest to say that Martin’s past offerings in the archtop arena were not very well received. While the company’s ability to craft great flattop guitars has always been unmatched, the archtop guitar is a distinctly different entity. My thorough understanding of the instrument and its tradition is what I have brought to the table, and, of course, what better company could there possibly be to execute such a design than Martin.

Accordingly, Martin and I are very proud to introduce two unprecedented Fhole archtop guitars. Both models are offered with either a natural or complete sunburst finish in the following options: The CF-1 model is a full 3” thickness body with a Kent Armstrong floating humbucking neck pickup, featuring an X-braced 3-ply top of spruce, obeche, and spruce, with solid flamed maple sides and a veneered flamed maple arched back.

The CF-2 incorporates a thinner 2 1/2” thickness body utilizing parallel top bracing to accept two built-in Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups with volume and tone controls and a pickup selecting switch. Please take the time to try these special guitars. You won’t be sorry!

Here are a few of the images from the Martin site.

As a custom builder, Lubos understands your needs as a player to create the one of a kind instrument you will simply enjoy for many years, on and off the job.

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Andy continued to build while studying music at UCSD, where he graduated with a degree in music with a guitar performance emphasis, and now builds full time in Oceanside, California. Andy Powers personally handles every detail from selecting wood and creating custom inlay, to the final stringing. This attention to detail on every custom instrument exemplifies Andy Powers Instrument Company's commitment to creating fine quality instruments in the tradition of the old masters.

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