About Me

I was born close to Vienna, Austria and I am still proud to hold Austrian nationality and although I moved to the Netherlands at an early age, I grew up with Austrian culture around me. My father was a watchmaker and I graduated with an Arts degree before gaining a diploma in the restoration of antique furniture. It was during this course that I actually realised I wanted to become a guitar maker.   

I have now been a guitar maker for the best part of 40 years, working with some famous clients: Al di Meola, Steve Howe, Chieli Minucci, Randy Bachman, Ahmet Kanneci , Camillo Sauvalle, Andreas Dombert and other famous collectors, such as Scott Chinery.

All my guitars are exclusively hand-made. I want my guitar to offer a large number of tonal colours, a full dynamic range, but also to have an intimacy, as I feel that this is the true sound of the instrument we call the guitar.

I first started building classical guitars and then specialised in custom-made guitars. About 30 years ago, I added the Archtop jazz guitar to my range because it grabbed both my attention and my passion.

signature theo scharpach
Theo Scharpach, guitarmaker in his wood workshop