“The old luthiers know things,” says Holger Obenaus. “Claudio Pagelli can tell you why it’s important to get wood from a tree that was cut during a specific phase of the moon. Benno Streu can find the flaw in a guitar that doesn’t sound right — he wipes his hand across it while playing a note and from the sound it makes he knows where to add or take away wood to fix it.”

It’s that arcane knowledge that Obenaus, a musician himself, is out to safeguard in his DVD series, “The Best Luthiers.” “Our goal is to create an audio-visual encyclopedia to preserve the heritage of guitar making,” says Obenaus. “We want to honor the great instruments that changed the sound of music and the gifted artisans who have elevated the craft of lutherie to an art form.”

To create the documentaries, Obenaus and his team at Gourmet Guitars rely on their Macs, Logic Pro, and Final Cut Studio. “We are typical children of the new,” Obenaus says happily. “Our music production facility and video editing suite have been all Apple for years, and we can’t imagine using anything else.”

“We want to honor the great instruments that changed the sound of music and the gifted artisans who have elevated the craft of lutherie to an art form.”

The Wood Sings

“Nowadays, people don’t learn how to do things by hand,” says Obenaus. “They have a computerized router, which doesn’t produce the same effect. Because you can’t just say, ‘Measure the wood to so many thousandths of an inch and it will be right.’ You have to feel it. The old guys would tap on the wood to decide the exact thickness for a guitar. They know how it should sound. And they’ll show you how, when it’s right, the wood starts to sing.”

Obenaus feels the urgency of capturing secrets like this. “The more computerized manufacturing jumps into guitarmaking, the less people rely on the old knowledge,” he says. “The guys who did it all by hand are getting into their seventies and eighties, and we want to make sure what they know is not lost.”

So it was a huge thrill for Obenaus to spend a week filming in the Següenza workshop of José Romanillos, who at 79 is one of the last big Spanish classical guitar makers. “He’s a legend.” says Obenaus respectfully. “And we got to shoot him as he finished making his last guitar.”

Oldtime luthiers have been eager to participate in Obenaus’s project. “They don’t keep anything back,” he says. “They tell us, ‘I want people to remember what it took me 20 years to find out.’ Many of them once dreamed of writing a book, but they can’t afford to, or they don’t have the time.” That’s why Obenaus decided to create his Gourmet Guitars DVD series.

European Songwriters

Obenaus and his two partners — Cindy Newman (his wife), who handles marketing and the DVD menus and covers, and Norbert Zucker, who helps with filming, subtitles, editing, and background music — have been successful songwriters, musicians, and producers in Europe. Over the past decade, their collective work has sold more than nine million albums.

“We wanted to try a new challenge,” says Obenaus, who prepares the interviews, directs the videos, and does most of the editing. The series aims for nothing less, in his view, than preserving the very roots of American pop culture. “Without the guitar, pop music as we know it would not be the same,” he says. “The guitar, both acoustic and electric, is the icon of American music.”

All About the Music

The Gourmet Guitars crew hopes the series will appeal to a wide audience. “It’s not only guitarmakers,” says Obenaus, “but anyone who wants to know how it’s done — or who just wants to be entertained by a good story.”

Each DVD in the series profiles three outstanding luthiers, their master-grade instruments and the stars who play them — as well as lots of music. “In the end, it’s all about the music,” says Obenaus. The documentaries include clips from world-class musicians like Woody Mann, Louisiana Red, and Robbie McIntosh, who toured with Norah Jones.

Next Page: Building a Masterpiece