2024 Silvia Zanchi SP/IN

This gorgeous guitar by Italian luthier Silvia Zanchi features beautiful materials including a spruce top speckled with light bearclaw markings throughout and her original, colorful design work using circular mother-of-pearl inlays in the rosette and tie-block. Tuners are by Kris Barnett and it is fitted with a 20th fret at the high e-string, providing an added high c-natural. It has a lovely, light-weight feel with immediate and snappy response, resulting in a plump, creamy and full-bodied sound across all registers. Notable additional strengths include a wide tonal color palette and broad dynamic range, making it extremely easy to play very lyrically and legato, assisted in part also to the excellent sustain in the trebles. Although second-hand, this guitar is in like-new condition with barely any signs of prior use. Overall a very refined and "musical" instrument that is simply very hard to put down!

Italian luthier Silvia Zanchi was born in Bergamo on August 27, 1981. After obtaining the Artistic Maturity in the field of Conservation and Cataloging of Cultural Heritage (State Art High School, Bergamo), she dedicated herself to violin making by attending courses at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan. She graduated in 2004 with top marks in the construction of plucked musical instruments under the guidance of Masters Tiziano Rizzi, Lorenzo Lippi and Aldo Illotta. In the following year, she obtained the diploma of the specialization course in restoration of musical instruments under the guidance of Gabriele Negri, again obtaining top marks. She collaborated with Master Lorenzo Frignani of Modena, with whom she completed a period of in-depth study on the construction techniques of plucked instruments, in particular the classical guitar.

She was a teacher at the "Laboratory of Construction of Plucked Instruments" at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan for the year 2006/2007; and also taught traditional French polishing at the same school. She has collaborated with the IROR (Institute for Organological Research and Restoration) and continues to teach theoretical and practical seminars on shellac varnishing. Silvia has also published a series of three technical notebooks about French polishing entitled “Gommalacca”, in collaboration with Claudio Canevari.

The results of her work were presented in Paris at the Cité de la Musique, at the International Conference “De la Peinture a Chevalet à L’instrument de Musique: Vernis, Liants, Coleurs” held on 6 and 7 March 2007; in Milan at a conference open to the public at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria (May 2007); at the Cremona Mondomusica 2007 salon; in Parma at the Palazzetto Eucherio Sanvitale in the Ducal Garden, as part of the exhibition The Botany of Music, in a meeting entitled “The secret of Father Jamart - Shellac: Insects, Trees, Musical Instruments” (9 May 2008); at the Teatro Zeppilli in Pieve di Cento, contributing with a speech to the National Biennial Conference of Violin Making entitled “The importance of publishing in the historical passage of experience” (13 September 2008); at the Cremona Mondomusica 2008 salon as part of the Conference “Varnishes in violin making”.

Silvia dedicates herself to the construction and restoration of plucked musical instruments, in particular classical concert guitars and copies of historical originals. Alongside his construction activity, she carries out considerable research into the construction techniques of historical musical instruments and shellac varnishing techniques.