1989 Matthias Dammann

Top: Cedar
Back and sides: “Wenge” Rosewood
Scale: 650mm
Origin: Germany
Price: SOLD

This lovely Dammann has found a new home, if you are interested in a fine Dammann please contact me…

This is an absolutely fabulous Dammann, I love this guitar! This is a solid top Dammann and if you have never played one you are in for a treat, they have volume that surpasses most other solid tops, and many double tops! The tone is rich, gorgeous and complex, pure Dammann as you would expect. Back in the ’80’s Robert Vidal sponsored the ORTF guitar competition and was the jury president. In 1988 they also had a guitar builders competition, and in fact Daniel Friederich was the jury president for that aspect of the competition in that year. Interestingly Stephan Schmidt won 1st prize, and Scott Tennant won 2nd prize in the competition that year. When the guitar builder jury finished it’s review of all the submissions, one guitar clearly stood out among the rest and was awarded first prize, the builder? Matthias Dammann, who had submitted a guitar exactly like this one, a virtual duplicate of the winning guitar built the very next year. Like the winning guitar, this guitar is a cedar solid top with a 650mm scale. Dammann used “Ulsperger (SP?)” tuning machines and the back and sides are of a wood known as “Wenge” a Rosewood that is very challenging to work with. There is one long repaired crack on the back that has been stable for many years according to the owner, and some light playing wear on the top, but it really looks quite clean especially considering it’s age. I believe it was re-polished at one point by Dammann himself. Think of a fine Dammann double top, with just slightly less volume, but all the beautiful tone.