I visited my favourite guitar builder, Marc Beneteau, in the Fall of 2019 at his home in St Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Marc is one of the world's pre-eminent luthiers, and I have worked with him exclusively on the design and building of my acoustic stage and studio guitars for over 25 years. Not only is he a force to be reckoned with as a luthier, he is also a truly wonderful man, and I consider him a dear friend. I've been really fortunate to work with him all these years.

In this first part of our chat, Marc talks about his origins as a guitar builder, and we talk about various specialty subjects, such as the construction of baritone guitars, fanfret guitars, and Marc's incredible fanfret harp guitar that has become legendary in the (admittedly tiny) harp guitar community.

Visit Marc's website at www.beneteauguitars.com