Luthiers of mandolins, mandolas, mando-cellos and other fretted instruments

On this page I have collected builders / luthiers of mandolins

These are some of the best builders of mandolins, guitars and other plucked instruments from Germany and Switzerland, as well as some other builders from Australia, Newzealand, Japan and other countries.

Check my collection of bookmark at pinboard.in: lutherie+mandolin

German builders

Dr. Thilo Fitzner has visited the German luthiers of mandolins in 2021/2022. You can find short articles about the German luthiers here: Kurzportraits der deutschen Mandolinenbauer

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See some pictures of German mandolins from the instrument exhibitions of the Eurofestival Zupfmusik:

• BDZ Eurofestival Zupfmusik Bruchsal 2018 – Instrumentenausstellung – Mandolinen, Mandolen, Gitarren und mehr

• A gallery of pictures of mandolin and other instruments made at the Eurofestival Zupfmusik 2014 Bruchsal

More pictures from the Upgrade Mandolin Guitar Festival in Berlin in 2015:

• Das Upgrade Mandolin Guitar Baglama Festival in Berlin – Mandolinen, Gitarren und Baglamas – Instrumentenausstellung

• Urs Langenbacher
• Klaus Knorr - mandolins, Zupfinstrumentenbaumeister Erlbach/Vogtland
• Alfred Woll - mandolins, mandolas, restauration and repair, barock mandolines
• Werner Deschler, Zupfinstrumente
• Migma
• Yasuyoshi Naito (Naito is a member of the Ensemble Hikari)
• Thomas Dotzauer - building mandolins in the 5th generation
• Henning Doderer
• Dieter Hopf - master guitars and mandolins
• Gerhard Bode-Labusch gbl-guitars
• Brunhilde Jacob
• Klaus Doll - Adrian Karperien is now the owner of this shop; he builds acoustic and electric mandolins
• Christoph Michael Pesch - very special instruments!
• Heidi Ritter - a young luthier from Hessen
• Christopher Schuetz - repair of old mandolins, mandolas
• Martin Hurttig - a young luthier from Leipzig - lutes, mandolins and guitars
• Armin und Mario Gropp - Master workshop for guitars and historical instruments
• Frank-Peter Dietrich & Markus Dietrich - Master workshop for guitars and historical instruments
• Hermann Gräfe - guitars, bandolims, cavaquinhos
• R. Nienaber - is building bluegrass mandolins from local timbers in Germany - great website!
• Elmar Geilen - bowlback mandolins
• Hans Her­wig Eck­ert - builds guitars as well as mandolins, Irish bouzoukis, mandolas and tenor banjos.
• Mandolinenbau Weis
• Heiner Dreizehnter (29.8.1960 - 9.4.2017))
• Norbert Kindler (2018 shop of Heiner Dreizehnter)
• Guriema (Website no more active)
• Tobias Kaul
• Ulrich Albert (died 14. 10. 2016 - Info)
• Franz Birner is building F-style mandolins since 2015

You can find other German luthiers by searching for  "Zupfinstrumente" on the website of the information centre  Website des MIZ

There you can also find an atlas of luthiers in Germany: Musikatlas der Instrumentenbauer

Another recommended website (in German only) is http://www.instrumenten-scout.de/. There you can finde luthiers from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Several publications present the luthiers of the regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These are available as pdf download.

French builders

Herve Coufleau - he has built my red F5 mandolin! (website no more available - Hervé Coufleau at Facebook)

Builders from the Netherlands

Hendrik van den Broek - builds copies of the Embergher 5 model (website no more online)

Italian builders

Calace - Liuteria del plettro fondata nel 1825 
(nice pictures of Calace mandolins can be found in Shop der Fana Corporation, Japan)

Carlo Mazzaccara

Liuteria d'insieme

Liuteria Lodi

Musikalia - Dott. Alfio Leone

Gabriele Pandini

Anema e corde - Anema e Corde (website) - 5 young luthiers from Napoli

Mario Vorraro (Neapel)

Federico Gabrielli (Milano)

Japanese builders - Members of the Japan String Instruments Makers Association (JSIMA)

KOBAYASHI, Shigeru [professional member / M]

NAITO, YASUYOSHI [professional member / M]

NAKADE, Rokutaro [professional member / G/M]

OCHIAI, Daigoro [professional member / M] (available from: ikegaku)

WATANABE, Hiroaki [professional member / G/M]

Yokouchinohanako [professional member / M]

YONEMARU, Kenji [professional member / M]

Suzuki-Mandolins (http://nagoyasuzuki.blogspot.de/ - see also Suzuki Links)

Liuteria Noguchi

Builders from England / GB

Andy Manson - is building custom guitars and f-mandolins, but also such special instruments as playable marmaids and mandolins with three necks - a must see!

Paul Hathway - building many different instruments including mandolins, mandoloncellos und bouzoukis

Antony Dixon - Instruments for Individuals

Builders from Canada

Brian Dean - a very interestig luthier with lots of great instruments!

Larry Muth - another interesting builder from Canada! Larry builds A-, F- and Twopoint-mandolins

More builders

The Guitarworkshop - Kurt Decorte

Sebastián Núñez - Maker of fine Early Musical Instruments, Lutes, Vihuelas, Early Guitars & Harpsichords, Specialized Restorer of Historical Guitars

Peter Coombe - with many pictures of his building of an A mandolin

Gerhard Bode-Labusch

Instrumentenbau Jon A. Piguet

DS Custom Guitars - Daniel Schär (electric mandolins)

Beltona Resonator Instruments - A beautiful resonator mandolin and mandola

IL LIUTAIO MAGICO - another site with pictures of old mandolins

Gerd Nikolaiski in Basel (Switzerland) builds guitars: http://vimeo.com/21831238 and  http://vimeo.com/21831038

Peter Duffy, has learned from Stephen Gilchrist and builds guitars, bouzoukis and mandocellos

Chris G. Pantazelos builds differnt kinds of plucked string instruments, including reek Bouzouki (Similar to the bowl-back Mandolin but with a longer neck), Irish Bouzouki, American bowl-back, as well as Guitars and other common stringed instruments. Visit his website Spartan Instruments