Mattingly Vihuela

This is another example of Robert Mattingly’s incredible woodworking skills and art in luthiery. This guitar was built for a university professor as a vihuela-like instrument to be used for early music performance. While not exactly a vihuela the instrument does reflect the aesthetic detail of some of the early predecessors to the modern guitar. The guitar is 6-course, double strung with gut frets and friction peg tuners. There are all sorts of details that make this instrument a wonderful show piece but it is much more than a showpiece and also has a lovely, delicate sound that gives a voice to some of our early repertoire that a modern guitar quite can’t achieve.