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Andrea Tacchi Interviews Daniel Friederich
25 Posted by Dave Tate in News 1 Comment

In Paris, in the heart of Faubourg St. Antoine (the district traditionally populated by wood workers and highly skilled
cabinet-makers), passing through a courtyard one finds the atelier of luthier Daniel Friederich. The large workshop,
composed of a few rooms, is full of wood, a realm of silence. The high windows, which dont face the street, have
curtains situated in such a way that the even light diuses following the rules with which the maestro has organized
the whole studio. Everything appears arranged so as to minimize any possible distractions: the position of the
workbenches, lighting, and above all, the optimal location of tools. No unnecessary loss of energy, especially mental.
AT: Maestro, wood is the history of your family

DF: I am the fourth generation of a family that has always

worked with wood. My great grandfather, a furniture maker,
arrived in Paris from Luxembourg in 1857 and established
himself in this arrondissement (district of Paris). At the
beginning, times were hard for him and earning a living was
tough. After him, my grandfather with his four brothers, and
then my father, all continued as cabinet-makers. This quarter,
Faubourg Saint Antoine, was the biggest European center for
the construction of luxury furniture for a rich clientele needing
to furnish their embassies, villas and castles. Even the imperial-
style furnishings in the Oval Oce at the White House were constructed here. In the 17th century, up until the mid-
19th century with Napoleon III, there was a big boom in Paris, construction everywhere and consequently much work
for the cabinet-makers.

AT: And you, Maestro, what was your training and how did begin your approach to this work? What is your story?

DF: I was born in 1932, and after my basic school studies I enrolled at the cole publique dbnisterie Charles
Baudelaire in Paris, and graduated in 1949. In 1948 I had acquired my first guitar a steel string. In 1954 I went to a
classical guitar concert at the cole Normale. I was so fascinated with the performance that during the intermission I
went to ask the organizer where I could learn to play in this style. I was so excited that instead of writing the actual
address he provided (Rue Descartes), I wrote Rue de la Guitare. It was none other than Ida Presti who was playing
that evening. Her confidence, mastery and elegance, her command of dynamics and tonal contrasts made this a
powerful experience. She had a very clear idea as to which elements made the guitar such an interesting instrument
she was the Queen of the guitar and has yet to be equaled I then became a student of Maestro Christian Aubin.
The instrument I had was not of the best quality and a Bouchet or a Spanish guitar were far out of my reach, so
Maestro Aubin, who knew about the technical and practical aspects of guitar construction, encouraged me and
helped me to build one a copy of a Simplicio. This was in 1955 and marked the beginning of the process which led
me in 1959 to change my vocation from cabinet-maker to guitar maker.

AT: How did you proceed after that?

DF: Upon the completion of my 15th guitar I went to Maestro Robert Bouchet, who courteously received me and gave
me technical advice of a practical nature. Afterwards, I had contact with Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya, who oered
great encouragement and who also introduced me to Professor Emile Leipp, director of the Laboratory of Musical
Acoustics, where I did some coursework. In 1967 I participated with success in the Liege Luthier Competition (in the
jury were Antonio Monzino, Ignacio Fleta, president, and Robert Bouchet). In the beginning I made two models of my
own design: one less expensive and simpler to build: the Recital, not numbered; and the other, called Concert,
which was more refined and well-finished. Both models were made with rosewood and spruce. Since 1970 I have built
only the Concert model. Seeing as experiment is necessary and everything else is just academic, in 1971 I slightly
changed the form of my instrument. The design decisions I make follow only one rule that they please me
aesthetically. That same year, starting with guitar number 279, I started to experiment with the of use double sides.
Basically I glue two layers of 2mm thick wood together to get a side of 4mm total. I was immediately aware that this
gave a more modern character to the instrument the sound of the fingernail attack changed and there was less
drum sound coming from the body. I also started to use Western Red Cedar as soundboard material, which I used
for the first time for Turibio Santos in 1974 (guitar number 378), and after 1975 it became a constant for many years.
This magnificent material, lightweight and flexible, gives a warm sound, and immediately creates a sound which to me
is trs guitare. I subsequently made adjustments to the bracing system with the intention of modifying the attack as
well as other aspects of the sound. In 1975 I started using an asymmetrical fan bracing system and in 1980 I added a
transverse bar between the sound hole and the bridge with the dual purpose of helping the soundboard sustain the
rotational torque of the bridge and limit the basses. I have found that too much exaggerated bass has a negative
influence on the polyphonic clarity the trebles are always covered, veiled. To achieve an attack that had more bite
to it, I started (in 1981) adding two transverse bars below the sound hole. With this technique, the primary frequency of
the soundboard went up to 110Hz, or the note La/A. This, which is my second type of fan bracing, is well suited for
guitarists with a softer attack, in fact it adds brilliance and speed to the sound. Since the beginning of my career up to
the present my guitar has gradually increased in weight from about 1550 grams up to 1750-1850 grams. Other
modifications came in the following years, by small, progressive adjustments. I found it necessary to modify one thing
at a time because changing everything in one instrument is a real gamble. I could only do that if I had to build a replica
of one made many years ago, but in this Im not interested. My path has been like that of a painter who cant paint
the same picture twice his whole life. Now Im on my 747th guitar.

AT: You, besides being a protagonist, have witnessed forty years of classical guitar history. Can you talk a bit about it
from the luthiers point of view?

DF: At the time I started, many players performed on traditional Spanish guitars such as Manuel Ramirez, Vicente
Arias, Antonio de Torres, Francisco Simplicio. That was the type of instrument that interested most people, mainly
because they are easy to play. Then, step by step, dierent styles of guitars emerged and evolved in dierent
directions. The Fleta family for example, professionals since 1929 drastically changed the design of their standard
instrument in 1955. Still with much inspiration from the past, they made an instrument with a slender neck and a thin
soundboard that had a sound with a very deep sonority that literally hit you in the stomach. Later they greatly
increased the thickness of the soundboard around the bridge and in general the weight of the instrument. Jos
Ramrez III, whose guitars were used by Andrs Segovia, was able to develop a modern instrument of his design.
Hermann Hauser II also contributed developments to the evolutionary puzzle with the insertion of the under-bridge bar
which was technically a good solution for distributing string tension more evenly across the top and avoiding
soundboard deformation. In parallel, Bouchet very early on, moved away from Torres, increased the weight of the
instrument and above all, melded the traditional Spanish system with a transverse bar under the bridge already
present in some preceding French instruments, first in those of Lacote and later in those of Grobert. Its no surprise
that Bouchet possessed a beautiful Lacote that can now be found in the Paris Museum of musical instruments.
Bouchet was also probably one of the first (along with Enrique Garcia) to create asymmetry in the thicknesses of the
fan braces, making the struts lower on the bass side and much thicker and stronger on the treble side. This
construction gave more homogeneity to the sound, longer sustain of the notes and greater balance between basses
and trebles. Playability improved in that the guitar had a more responsive attack with either a softer, easier touch or a
good and strong touch. This combination of adjustments produced a guitar that was clearly superior to the other
guitars of the same period. As a kind of proof of this there are many beautiful recordings done with Bouchet guitars. I
was in contact with him for 26 years, I have an entire book of letters and cards he wrote to me. He was a good painter
and teacher at the academy This painting he gave me was painted by him.

AT: Observing your work from the aesthetic and structural points of view, one could say that you impose an iron
discipline. In your opinion, are auditory research and aesthetics of equal value?

DF: While the notion of beautiful always changes, that of

well-made does not. It remains for centuries. I aim to respect
this second notion. At times I make slight modifications to the
inlays. For example the colors of the purflings, the rosette and
others. Even though my guitar is already dicult to make and
takes me 250 hours of work, and even more at my age (this
note added in 2013) I am always curious to pursue more
knowledge by prudent experiment, and also in personalizing an
instrument for a given musician. A general rule is that whatever
the instrument, in the end I have to like it. Generally though,
guitarists are only interested in the sound, which at times is
frustrating.

AT: On this front, Maestro, do you personalize the sound of your guitars according to the guitarist who has
commissioned an instrument?

DF: I build for a wide variety of classical guitar playing styles and for guitarists who represent an international
panorama of very dierent approaches to the instrument. Its important therefore to make guitars which are suitable to
these dierent ways of playing, thus making the most of the combination between instrument and musician. Some
players have a light and silvery sound, others have a dark sound and play deep into the strings. The shape of the
finger and the nail makes the quantity of sound and sustain an extremely personal matter. Regarding power and
duration, it is necessary to note that volume isnt just absolute momentary intensity over time, the sound must decay
slowly after its peak. A guitar that decays too quickly is not an interesting guitar to me. In any case, returning to the
initial question, I have a very detailed archive of every single instrument Ive built, where the quality, weight and
flexibility of every principal part of the guitar is noted, along with thicknesses and dimensions of the soundboard, the
back, the neck and the braces. That way if there is a request for a guitar similar to another that I made previously, I can
execute a precise replica.

AT: Maestro, I cant help but ask you to comment on the technical questions
regarding wood, dimensions and how these interact.

DF: After years of building cedar-top instruments, I have now for the last three
years (Mr. Friederich was referring to 1994, as the original interview was made
around 1997) gone back to making guitars also in spruce, progressively and
carefully, being careful to avoid going back thirty years in time, preserving, that
is, the modern character of my current work, while re-visiting this wood of my
earlier guitars. You can change everything the bars below the soundhole, the
thickness of the neck and heel, the back bars. These will aect certain aspects
of the sound, such as sustain, beauty and strength. The playability of an
instrument is also an important element of the construction process. Between
cedar and spruce, I find that guitars built with cedar are more flexible and
lighter, theyre deeper and easier to play. When using spruce, I find that
drastically diminishing the thickness of the soundboard around the bridge and
the dimensions of the internal structure, the sound can begin to approach that
of cedar. Vice versa, I have some cedar with a specific gravity of 400kg/mc,
similar to a lightweight piece of spruce, which I dont use willingly the sound produced is a bit too light, Ive got to
reflect on this some more Anyway you cant change anything in the guitar without having an eect on the sound.

AT: What do you think of the rumor that the life-span of cedar guitars is much shorter than spruce?

DF: I would say more generally that there are soundboard woods that age faster than others, even of the same
species. I believe it depends on how the cells of the each piece of wood are naturally joined together. There are guitars
of mine in cedar that have been played a lot and still sound new. For instruments which may lack a certain vigor, in
part you can compensate using carbon strings which generally have higher tension.

AT: And regarding the neck and back?

DF: The neck is of notable importance. I use both Spanish cedar (Cedrella odorata) and Honduran mahogany
(Swietenia macrophylla) for the neck, I like them both. It is always necessary to weigh the wood because even from
the same plank two necks can have a mass that diers as much as 100 grams. If then, by misfortune a heavier-than-
usual fingerboard (for example 50 grams more) is used, youll get a neck/fingerboard combination which completely
throws o the physical balance of the instrument. For this very reason I quickly stopped using heavy Cuban
mahogany. As for the back, if it is also heavy, the instrument will surely be unpleasant and dicult to play, and less
sensitive overall. I find that guitars which weigh more than 1900 grams present problems. The lighter the guitar and
generally less resistant the structure, the easier it is to play. Yet I also consider the weight an important factor which
brings about the nuances in timbre, power and sustain. In the end, regarding the body, I dont see the absolute need
to use CSA rosewood. Some luthiers attribute superior qualities to it, with the only real aim being to raise the price of
the instrument! I, instead, generally prefer woods that are a little lighter. Lately however Ive started becoming more of
a believer again in the marriage between spruce and CSA rosewood. With a thick back and thin, flexible top Im able
to obtain some interesting results. In any case there is one rule that applies to the many aspects of guitar construction:
there is no black and white, only many shades in between.

AT: And what are your preferences regarding the sound?

DF: Generally I dont like guitars with a sound that is too clear and tight, but rather those with a full-bodied sound. I
also dont like dry or metallic trebles nor thin basses. I prefer the sound of the piano to the Harpsichord if that is a
useful comparison.

AT: Maestro, you are one of the few builders who has had the occasion to frequent and work seriously in a big acoustic
laboratory, side-by-side with technicians and authorities in the field such as Professor Emile Leipp. In your opinion,
with all the knowledge of acoustics and physics which is currently available, what sense could it have, if any, to design
an instrument on a computer?

DF: In reality Im not a scientific luthier, but it has been an

enormous pleasure for me to know of the research done by
experts in these fields, starting with the simple and ending with
the complex. I began by reading with great interest the works
by the major authorities of the last century in the field of
acoustics: Savart, Chladni, Helmholtz, Bouasse and in the end
Leipp, with whom I conducted elaborate experiments on the
guitar. The reduction of art to mathematics is an ancient dream
of mankind, a seductive utopia: cellos whose form is dictated
by musical proportions, architecture conceived on the basis of
1.618, or the golden mean, or the proportions of the human
body. After Descartes it has regularly been imagined that we
can resolve anything by means of calculations and mathematics. With a computer you can make music, play chess,
and if you give it enough information we could without a doubt design an ideal guitar in some sense. But in the end,
every instrument needs to be heard, to be judged by the ear, an organ without equal in this field, capable of analyzing
and appreciating extremely complex sounds in fractions of a second. Thus, I believe that intuition and experience still
have a good future and great possibilities. While old-fashioned artistry still solidly dominates the field of guitar making,
marvelous electronic instruments can help shed light on the remaining dark spots in our knowledge regarding sound.

AT: Getting back in part to the topic: What impression do you have of the guitars of the latest generation which make
use of non-traditional materials (for example, carbon fiber or composite materials)?

DF: The impression I have is that these instruments are good sound machines that unleash a powerful and
homogenous sound. However the design, which is modeled on the membrane of a loudspeaker, is problematic
regarding the aesthetic quality of the sound it produces. First of all, the sound of the nail at the attack is heard clearly
even before the note, amplified by the membrane of the soundboard especially at the edges where it is very thin.
Secondly and more importantly is the lack of filtering of the sound, which is the result of the choices made by the
luthier during the process of thicknessing and bracing of the soundboard. To elaborate: These new instruments
generally have bodies which are very rigid, heavy, neutral and reflective. In contrast to this, the soundboards are very
thin, sometimes reinforced with light (but rigid) materials like balsa (a very lightweight wood) and carbon fiber. These
types of soundboard systems typically amplify everything that the string transmits all of the harmonics produced by
the string are thus present in the sonic spectrum, limiting the role of the builder to producing an anonymous timbre.
Important variations and nuances in sound, color and dynamics (which are the very character of a particular
instrument and its luthier) are therefore lost. Its a sound thats too much the same. Devoid of variety, its simply not
interesting, the poetry is lacking and the listener becomes bored. To summarize, guitars which I call Drum-guitars
each note comes out with a very strong, explosive attack but is in the end displeasing and graceless. The guitarist
who mostly plays with rest stroke should not use one of these guitars. Guitarists who dont have great power in their
hands could use these, as could those who prefer to play with well-defined and precise free strokes.

AT: Could you give some advice to anyone who has the wish to buy a luthier-
built instrument?

DF: I find this question so special, so personal that I cant help but respond:
Buy a Tacchi or a Friederich! (laughing)

AT: In your opinion, what are the qualities a luthier should have, and what talents
should be cultivated?

DF: More than anything, Id say that one shouldnt undertake this profession
without a true calling, its necessary to have a natural predisposition toward this
complex work. Beyond this, one needs a good dose of patience, courage and
the ability to control ones own insecurities. I advise young luthiers to educate
their ear and especially to acquire a memory of sound because it is much harder
to judge the sound of an instrument than the sound of the human voice. I advise
further to play the guitar, and to be knowledgeable about current research and
understanding in the field of musical acoustics. There is a lot to learn,
nonetheless even if the path of each luthier can be considerably dierent, one rule goes for all: youve got to love the
guitar.

AT: The Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, speaking about the profession of the actor, has said: Ours is a fantastic
profession, they pay us to continue performing. On the occasions in which I frequented Maestro Bouchet, this was the
impression I had of his vision of guitar making. His advanced age notwithstanding, he had a lively curiosity about the
next guitar to build, he showed a youthful enthusiasm towards his craft. What do you think about this?

DF: Concerning Mastroiannis armation, Id say in general we get paid a lot less! Robert Bouchet was an exceptional
person: he loved the guitar, youth, funny stories, friends, traveling, life. In summers he didnt work, he passed the
season in his little house in the countryside 80 km outside of Paris. Im very dierent from him restless, a kind of
luthier-monk. And having always worked professionally, Ive conducted a very dierent life, regimented by precise
 deadlines. Its also tiring, dicult work. It has been however a great pleasure to progress in this profession and be
constantly researching new technical and artistic solutions, something which I have always had a passion for. I have
also had the honor to know and listen to musicians of great merit and artistry.

And so concludes the interview with Maestro Daniel Friederich, which was compiled from many encounters and
discussions over a twelve-year period. My impression is that every response he provided was pondered attentively
through a continuous observation of his work and its results, brought along by a deep technical awareness. I think that
this should become the working rule in the development of a concrete future for lutherie. I take this occasion to
publically thank Maestro Friederich for the important responses he gave to us.
-Andrea Tacchi

Originally published 1998 in Il Fronimo (Translation 2013 by John

Weissenrieder)

Andrea Tacchi would also like to thank: Mrs. Lena Kokkaliari, editor of Il Fronimo, who courteously allowed the use of
the interview originally published in the aforementioned magazine long ago (1998 volume Nr. 101), Luthier John
Weissenrieder, who scrupulously oversaw the translation from Italian, guitarist Gabriele Natilla, who for years has been
living in Paris and teaching at the Conservatoire dArgenteuil who helped with this final draft, collecting directly from
Mr. Friederich the last corrections, updates and photos. And finally Mr. Tacchi would like to give his heartfelt thanks to
Maestro Friederich.

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