Testimonials – Van Guyse Guitars

Otto Tolonen

On my visit to Leuven, Belgium in spring 2019, I had a pleasure of trying out several guitars made by luthier Maarten van Guyse.

Projection, colors and overall playability of his guitars is of highest class. What also struck me was the variety and consistency his different models present.

Craftsmanship is beautiful and detailed. Highly recommended.

Otto Tolonen

Concert and recording artist

Professor at Norwegian Academy of Music

Otto Tolonen

The guitars of Maarten van Guyse show a deep embrace of true classical guitar maker craftsmanship with modern sound aspects, which is very rare. Most of the guitars either tend to a clear traditional sound or focus on a modern folkloristic blend.

For my sound approach concerning the EUROPEAN GUITAR QUARTET (with Zoran Dukic, Pavel Steidl and Reentko Dirks) I was looking for an instrument based on a profound classical sound on a very high level and with all the dynamics, but in addition with enormous flexibility and a real punch. What I found luckily – was his guitar. The second he ever made.

Thomas Fellow

Reentko Dirks

I tried many guitars of Maarten van Guyse, and each of them are exceptional. The one I play is a lifetime instrument. He is a genius.

Reentko Dirks

Fernando Noriega Diaz

I discovered Maartens guitars a couple of years ago not only as a professional guitar player, but also as a master guitar counselor who has played and examined hundreds of master guitars. After such an experience I barely need to open the case to know what kind of instrument I’m confronted with, and as I first saw a Van Guyse I knew there was a passionate and extremely experienced builder with great intuition behind it.

Describing the sound in objective terms always melts down to the same words: sustain, projection, loudness, playability and so on.

All this is useless to depict the effect of the instrument on the player, which is finally the only thing that really matters, so I will describe his guitars as follows: the feel of the instruments is solid, humble and helpful, as opposed to some guitars you have to ‘force’ or some you will perceive as ‘fragile’; the sound of his cedar & spruce top is a mix of that feeling of depth during an evening walk through the forest, the feeling of transparence after the rain and the feeling of nostalgia and mystery of Ravel’s and Debussy’s music.

His García model is at the same time sweet and strong, like a playful child with great energy and untamed vision; his flamenco guitars are all temperament and spice, having the particularity of not becoming superficial and dry through their characteristic lightness, but preserving a nicely wet reverb without interfering with a clarity that makes you think of the shape of lonely trees during the sunset.

I definitely would recommend a Van Guyse to any guitar player searching for an instrument with real personality and capable of understanding what the sound of the guitar is all about.

Fernando Noriega Diaz