When I first met Giulio Cantore at a gig I was playing in Gambettola in May 2017, he was introduced as a luthier. We struck up an instant friendship, and over the next few months I discovered that he was also an astoundingly good guitarist and the writer of wonderfully playful songs. When I visited Italy again later that year I spent a few days at his place up in the green hills of Emilia Romagna, an off-grid commune shared by three families, and we played a few dates together. Over the next few years we played together whenever we could, in Italy and Germany, and he even visited our house on the Isle of Wight a few times. When I went to Stuttgart to record Domestic with Max Braun I asked if Giulio could come along, he added a lightness of touch to proceedings, and brought some glorious new colours to the music.

I’ve never been that interested in guitars, I couldn’t tell you anything about the guitar I play these days, other than it’s a nylon stringed classical guitar and I know it cost less than the pick-up I had installed. It sounds great, I enjoy playing it, and it’s not the end of the world if it gets damaged. I had one given to me by a friend a few years ago that he had made and I cherish that, but it’s steel strung and so I don’t perform with it. But as I’ve got to know Giulio more over the years I’ve come to realise just what an exceptional luthier he is and how stupid I would be not to ask him to make one for me, after all, he knows my music, he knows how I play, I trust him implicitly to make something that would be MY instrument. And so last year I asked him and he agreed. As he worked on it he’d send me pictures that I’d post on facebook and the response was incredible, people were enchanted by the craftsmanship, so I share with you here some of these photographs so that you too may enjoy the journey.

I write this just four days before Giulio comes to visit, delivering the instrument by hand. Safe travels!

The making of the guitar

The finished instrument