The Luthier

I started playing the guitar when I was 13, it was in 1969. At that time my brother played the piano -he still does- and I had the idea that there was certainly a way to play the guitar like the piano. So I began transcribing tunes like Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag on my guitar, by ear. I had absolutely no idea that  there was something called fingerpicking...  Later I discovered the great Country Blues artists like Blind Blake, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt. I was definitely hooked. In 2009 I started making guitars, always thinking of that great early Blues sound, trying to give my instruments the clear, loud and sensitive sound that came out of the old Stellas, Regals or Holzapfel I had so often listened on my reissue LPs. I finaly found out that it was the better way to make the most versatile guitar, an instrument that allows the musician to express his feeling and sensivity, whatever his style. Antoine Payen - Luthier