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When you play a LoPrinzi instrument, you're
playing more than just wood and strings--you're
experiencing the culmination of the years of old world lutherie skills
practiced by Augustino
and Donna LoPrinzi.
This father-daughter team proudly handcrafts each of the instruments
bearing the LoPrinzi
name. While their shop in Clearwater, Florida small, the instruments
they produce travel the
globe, carrying the LoPrinzi name into recording studios and performance
halls worldwide.
Meet Augustino LoPrinzi:
Augustino LoPrinzi was born the third child of nine to
an immigrant family in New Jersey.
At the age of 8 he began shining shoes in the family's barbershop.
By 11 years old he
was giving shaves--but, fortunately for musicians everywhere, there was a lot
more going
on in the shop than haircuts and shaves.
Music had always been a part of Augustino's life. During grade school he
took violin lessons
and then began tinkering around with violins in a little workshop in the back of
the family
barber shop. The music teacher discovered to his chagrin, that his student
had more of an
interest in taking his violin apart than in playing it, so the lessons
ended--but the tinkering
continued.
Augustino fulfilled the family tradition by becoming a barber, but the little
woodworking area
in the back of the shop still saw plenty of activity. In 1958 one of his
customers brought in
a 10 year old guitar and boasted that he'd bought it for $145.00. "For
that money," replied
Augie, "I'll make on myself." When the customer doubted him, Augie started
work on his
first guitar, completing it in the back of that same barbershop in Flemington,
New Jersey.
In the beginning Augie worked all day cutting hair and
then worked many nights until two or
three in the morning on guitars. He worked in the basement of his home, on
the kitchen table,
or any other available spot. The first three or four years were strictly
trial and error. In those
days there was no one around to learn from, unless you traveled to Spain, so he
read and read
some more, looked at other guitars, even took them apart and put them back
together again.
Augustino's biggest struggle was procedure.
There's a specific order in which to assemble a
guitar and you must be careful not to hinder any parts by putting them together
in the wrong
order. He spent most of his time getting these procedures down and by his
second year he began
to study sound waves and acoustics. He learned that tonal quality was of
the utmost importance
in building a good guitar. By the end of his fourth year he had made his
first good sounding
guitar.
By this time he was getting more and more work for
repairs and building guitars than cutting
hair. So after barbering for 22 years, he quit. It was 1969.
Everyone thought he was crazy, but
his wife, parents and brothers had faith in him. By 1972 he and his
brother, Thomas, founded the
LoPrinzi Guitar Company in New Jersey. They started to sell stock in the
company and soon had
a successful business going with 17 employees. In 1973 his instruments
caught the attention of
Maark Corporation (a subsidiary of AMF); the firm began buying up a controlling
interest in his
company as a way to move into the guitar business. Three years later,
LoPrinzi Guitars was
producing 80 guitars a month for customers in five countries.
After growing tired of overseeing production and
fearful of the direction the company was taking,
Augie sold his interest to Maark Corporation. He felt the damands of mass
production would
jeopardize the quality of their instruments.
Augie's philosophy of work and success is a traditional
one. If you're only out to make money,
you'll never get anywhere. You have to disregard the money part. "Do
good and the money will
come," was the theory instilled in Augie by his father.
Refusing to sign a "non-compete" clause with Maark, he
opened "Augustino Guitars" two weeks
later--and literally moved next door to his original plant! He continued
to produce guitars there
until 1978, and then moved to Florida. The AMF--owned LoPrinzi Company
continued producing
guitars for a number of years, and finally closed the doors in 1980. Years
later, Augustino
requested his old trademark back. Working with vice president Dick
Hargraves, Augie finally had
the trademark transferred back officially.
Today he has developed a full line of Augustino
LoPrinzi guitars and ukuleles; he continues to
build instruments today with his daughter, Donna LoPrinzi. In his more
than 50 years as a luthier,
Augie has designed and built many types of strings instruments, including
mandolins, violins,
lutes, ukuleles, steel string guitars and classical guitars.
Meet Donna LoPrinzi
Donna LoPrinzi is Augustino's youngest of three
children. She is married and has one
child, a daughter.
From an early age she watched her father build guitars
with complete admiration. When
old enough, she was allowed to work in the shop after school and during summer
breaks
for spending money. When she got in trouble, she had to work in the shop
as punishment--
as did Augie's other two children.
Over the years, Donna developed a love and appreciation for guitar building and
began
asking her father to let her apprentice. Finally, after five years of
pleading with him, Donna
was finally permitted to begin her luthier apprenticeship.
In Augie's defense, he had been through similar apprenticeships with he older
son and daughter,
neither proved to have the real interest in guitar building and went onto other
careers. Augustino
wanted to make sure Donna had the desire and interest before he invested his
time and
effort in teaching.
After six years of apprenticeship, Donna had become a
luthier in her own right. Donna has
been building guitars, side by side with her father, for more than 15 years.
Augustino says that he has had many apprentices over
the years, some very good, but never
has he had anyone that was so eager to learn every aspect of guitar making and
learn so
quickly.
"It has given me such pleasure to work with Donna
because we share the same love for the
instrument," Augie smiles.
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