the early years  1978 - 1985 in Wiesbaden     Born 1960 I got the first infection of the guitar virus when my parents brought me to a flamenco concert when I was eight years old. I remember there was just one man on stage with his flamenco guitar and no PA or anything - he blew me away. Then "The Monkees" came on the TV, I didn´t miss one episode and I knew - I wanted to play in a band. Begging for a guitar I finally got a classical one at X-mas 1971 plus lessons for a year. Around that time nearby my Dads carpentry a record shop closed down and I managed to rescue many big boxes full with brandnew records. It took me weeks to listen trough the lot (lots of crap) and I discovered bands I never knew existed. Led Zeppelin, Yes, King Crimson, Zappa, Stooges etc. - Uhh,  it was like paradise. I got bored with the classical stuff and urgently needed an electric guitar. After school I often helped my Dad in the workshop doing lots of sanding, staining and spraying to earn a bit of money. In 1973 I bought my first electric, an Ibanez LesPaul and started playing with friends. Since then the guitar has ruled my life completely. In 1974 I formed the band "FLICKWERK"  with my mate and drummer Akki which lasted about 6 years.   I finished school in 1977 and started a 3-year apprenticeship as a luthier at a company called HOPF. They were one of the old established guitar-companys like Framus or Hofner. At that time the factory had about 80 employees and produced everything stringed from low cost to high class masterpieces. The job was often hard and sweaty and I wanted to quit a few times - but after all I´m very thankful for this training, I went trough every step of guitarmaking from cutting the big logs to the final adjustments. Meanwhile I was much more interested  in guitarplaying than making them and did put most of my effort into music. Until 1980 I only made a few guitars for myself and friends, apart from all the guitars I made at HOPF. But the word spread that my guitars are a bit special. So in 1980 after my examination as a guitarmaker my instruments got ordered more and more.   Between 1980 and 85 I made a lot of guitars and basses, repairs, plus restored and frenchpolished antiques. At night most of the time I played gigs, did a few studio jobs and tried out many bands. I had quite a few U.S. customers owing to the american Airforce base in Wiesbaden where I lived. In 1983 I shared a booth with pickup guru Bill Lawrence at the Frankfurt Music Fair, thanks Bill, I learned a lot from you.        First Electric  

this is the first electric guitar I ever made, in 1978 in the workshop of Dieter Hopf, who was my master. He said he would pay for the wood, so I tried to get the most out of it. Electrics were not so popular at that company, for the 1st year of training we just made acoustics, classical mainly. The body parts were made up of 3 very old cello neck blanks. Unfortunatly this guitar got stolen in 1981.         first fretless Bass   1979, click on the picture to supersize       First 7-string   made for Juraj Galan. One of the first Dommengets, ca. 1979. Body and neck are mahagony, ebony fretboard, my first homemade pickups and bridge     you can watch Juraj playing his guitar here:         Flamenco "Gesellenstück" I made this flamenco guitar in 1980 as part of my examination as a luthier.                                           I made a couple of "Z" guitars like this, ca. 1980       First lefthand Z, ca. 1980     a happy customer           Z 3 Star   made in my first workshop (one room in my 2-room flat), 1979? The finish is shellac frenchpolished. I wasn´t allowed to spray nitro (which I did outside the window) because of the smell         Another "Z", around the same time ordered by Peter Driessen         The first BAT ca. 1981     the 2nd BAT   this guitar got stolen         DOUBLENECK-BASS   made for Dieter Petereit (Doldinger´s PASSPORT), 1983         AnyWay       thats the one that did beat the firebird (for me). I had to be careful to promote my own name because of legal reasons. I wasn´t a "master" and regarding german law not allowed to officially be selfemployed as a guitarmaker. The EU changed all that. Anyway, thats why there are a few of my guitars out there called "AnyWay" (1979-1983) and  some only have a star in the headstock. more AnyWays   all AnyWay models were of mahagony and equiped with Bill Lawrence pickups. I had a few of them on display at the 1983 Frankfurt Music Fair where I shared a booth with Bill.                   Customorder 1983 all mahagony, click on the picture to supersize       Customorder "HANK MARVIN"   synthesizer guitar , ca. 1982           early Telly       The first DOUBLECUT   I got my first testreview in the magazine FACHBLATT in 1985 with this guitar, click here     The DOUBLECUT is my most constant seller, I still make them.   After the testreview came out a big german company approached me to exclusively distribute my guitars. They ordered  quite a big amount of guitars. So I managed to get a loan from my bank to get the material to be able to work on this order for a few months. Some weeks later I got a letter from this company saying they wanted to cancel the order. Young and naive as I was, I had nothing on paper in my hands and was suddenly sitting on a big amount of debts. Shocked by this experience I lost interest in guitarmaking at that time and wanted to start something completly new. I sold my workshop, all the machines and material, just kept my tools for doing repairs and a few guitars for myself and moved to London.     The London years 1985 -1988    I took on a nice job as an antique furniture restorer at Dome antiques in Islington, north London. A couple of months later I changed to Keith Skeel antiques, one of the most exclusive antique warehouses in the U.K., working on high class barock, renaissance and east Asienantiques. 1989 I moved to Hamburg for family reasons. 2001 I moved to the coutryside of Balje.