My name is Giulio Carlo Vecchini. I was born in Arezzo on 2nd March 1979 and I live in Cortona, a very beautiful Tuscan town. Italy. I’m a guitar maker and I specialize in designing and making modern string instruments I decided to call by the name “Makassar” just like the name of the famous ebony wood.
I make instruments such as guitars and electric solid body bass guitars on commision. I also make half acoustic instruments. All my instruments are completely handmade so I definitely feel like a tailor who makes clothes to measure.
It is extremely important for me to talk to the musician who orders the instrument I have to make to understand his requests. Therefore we decide the characteristics, the dimensions, every single component as well as the layout the instrument is supposed to have.
Each Makassar instrument is unique. It is born in the musician’s mind and soul. I simply have to listen to, to understand the musician’s thought and feelings to give him advice so as to make the instrument itself. This is my job and my task...
I would say I have to transform a dream, a feeling, a sensation into the desired musical instrument.
What I like most in my job is that the art of lute making is without tricks. I mean that a good sound is not the result of a single device which can be a pick up or a particular kind of wood; it is a matter of experience and the time spent over listening and trying over and over again.
Making a completely new instrument means experimenting and trying an endless number of possibilities and variations.
A lute maker’s skill depends on his ability to choose the best solutions keeping in mind only that instrument and only that player. Every single part of the instrument has to interact with another so as to give out a harmonious sound. The final effect must be a complex combination of harmonics that follow the same direction. All that with the only purpose of giving life to one single voice which sends an unmistakable message: Equilibrium.
You may also consider it as a metaphor of life!
My own history
My grandfather would be a carpenter who used to work hard and valuable woods. A very big man, one meter and eighty centimeter tall. He had always been keen on wood and art.
Since my fist years I have always spent my free time with him and I have helped him in his works. I grew up in his laboratory so the passion of working wood grew up with me as well.
Since then I have been interested in music more and more. The two interests started to go together until I understood that I could combine them definitively.
Many events and people have made me what I am now but Carlos Michelutti, a famous lute maker Master, was extremely important to me. He has always been available with me and his passion helped me a lot.
Also the cooperation as a restorer of instruments with Gianmarco Scaglia at his Music Factory guitar shop was very important for my experience. Since then I have been able to customize and repair classical as well as American vintage instruments. I’m proud to say that I have worked very hard so far and now I can make Makassar Instruments.
The art of guitar making is a world apart full of sensitivity. You can imagine it as a combination of a great variety of materials which make you feel unusual and unique sensations. Once you get started you will never finish to learn and to get filled with wonder!
