A week ago, a friend from Germany asked me to help him with a recording project. He asked me to just turn up. I didn’t even have to bring my guitar with me, as “everything will be provided”. He knew a local guitar shop whose owner was happy to lend me a couple of guitars to use on the project. Without any expectation we went to that shop to try some guitars and boy, oh boy... was there a surprise waiting...
This unassuming shop in Koblenz, Germany, apart from selling regular guitar stuff, is also an outlet for the owner's own hand made guitars that he makes from scratch in the workshop above the store.
World, meet Fritz Rössel
Fritz is quite a character. He doesn’t own a mobile phone or an answering machine. The only things he gets out of bed for are fast classic cars and his guitars. These guitars are true labour of love. Fritz is not driven by either money or fame, but only by his imagination. He is not afraid to push the boundaries or spend extra on some special single item, just to deliver the result he and his customers want.
- 36 fret guitar? - No problem.
- Aluminium body guitar? - Why not.
- Guitar dressed in Hawaiian shirt? - Sure...
- Gold machine heads? - Of course...
- Detachable neck for discerning air-travellers? - Funny you should ask that... actually, they are in production.
This is not to say that he shies away from the public eye. To the contrary, you’ll find him and his guitars both at Frankfurt Musikmesse and NAMM and we hope to see him in London at the soonest opportunity.
Enjoy the video.
You can find out more about all Rössel products on these links:
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