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Model: Pietro Gallinotti -- Model Hauser
Top:
German Spruce
Back
and Sides:
Hondurian
Mahogany
Scale: 650mm
Nut:
52mm
Finish: French polished
Tuners:
Hand engraved
Country:
Italy
Year:
1964
Condition:
Excellent Pietro Gallinotti (1885-1979) was born in Solero, Italy, a small town in the province of Alessenadria. At age 10, Pietro apprenticed as cabinet maker in Genova, where he worked for nearly twenty years. Just before World War I, Pietro went to Savigliano to work in a factory building railway coaches, but was soon drafted. During the War he was captured and imprisoned in Czechoslovakia. There, when the camp commandant learned he was a skilled cabinet maker, he gave him a violin, and ordered him to make a copy of it. After the war, Pietro returned to Solero and opened a workshop, and began instruments in the violin family. He built the classic models of Stradivarius, Guarnerious, Rocca, Oddone. His fame grew. He won important prizes in Ginevra, in 1927, in Rome in 1933, in Balognia in 1936, in Torino e Modena in 1953. Besides violins, violas, and cellos, Gallinotti made mandolins, and copies of guitars by Gaetano Guadagnini e Gatt. After seeing a Simplicio, he was inspired to build guitars in the Spanish manner. Pietro began to study the Spanish school by repairing guitars of Santos Hernandez, Simplicio, and Julian Gomez Ramirez. In 1933, he built a copy of a Julian Gomez Ramirez. In 1949, Andres Segovia came to Alessandria to give a concert, and Pietro had a chance to hear the great maestro play his 1937 Hauser guitar. After the concert, Gallinotti and his son Carlo, accompanied the maestro to dinner. Segovia asked Gallinotti to do a small repair on his Hauser. Allowing Gallinotti to have it for a short time, gave him the opportunity to study it. Using Segovia's Hauser as a model, Gallinotti's attainments as a luthier reached new heights. Many great guitarists began to use his instruments. First among these was Aliro Diaz, who became a fervent admirer, and used his guitars in recordings. In the 1960s, Pietro had the opportunity to show one of his guitars to the great Segovia, who after playing it, was so impressed that a he wanted to write a note of appreciation on it. Although Pietro died in 1979, his stature as a guitar maker has continued to grow. In 2006, and Guitar exhibition and concert series at the Museum of Savigliano was held in his honor, and an important book on this luthier's art was published by Mario da Ara and Mario Grimaldi Pietro Gallinotti Liutaio di Solero, with diagrams, prints, and testimonies by students, musicians and artists. 
1964 Pietro Gallinotti
piece by Aguado played by Cale Hoeflicker |
