|
Sergei de Jonge
S ergei de Jonge is often considered one of the fathers of Canadian
guitarmaking, as he has a long involvement in the craft and many
other builders have learned from him. After starting with Jean Larrivee
in 1969, Sergei de Jonge later started building his own classical
guitars in the basement of his home. Despite moderate success, he
later left the guitarmaking scene for several years to build stage
sets for theater productions in Toronto. He still kept his hand
in, however, building a few guitars in Grit Laskin’s shop
in the middle of the night, and eventually the call of luthiery
became too loud for him to ignore. For the last several years he
has depended on his guitarmaking school as much as the income from
selling his own instruments, and many luthiers got their start in
his intensive classes. One of these graduates is Gryphon’s
Willie Carter, who now makes and sells his own guitars, and is also
our “Sergei connection” here at the store.
All of Sergei and wife Devora’s six children have grown
up in his shop, and all work at building guitars of their own. Recently
his eldest daughter, Joshia, left to open her own shop in Montreal
with her husband.
Sergei de Jonge builds both classical and steel-string models,
and Gryphon has stocked both in the past. But it is in the steel-string
models that Sergei’s sense of design and flawless workmanship
truly shines. Unlike most contemporary builders, he doesn’t
use CNC machines and extensive tooling, instead relying on what
is perhaps the best eye-hand coordination in the trade today. Another
of his assets is a large stash of exotic woods, some saved for decades,
which he can pull from to create startling panoramic “woodscapes”
of colorful grain and texture. As a result, each Sergei de Jonge
guitar has a unique personality, and despite wide variation they
are all splendid examples of the luthier’s art.
|
