Joel di mauro no. 42 - italian spruce & indian rosewood

Joel Di Mauro builds classical guitars by hand from a sunlit workshop overlooking Capitola Village, just south of Santa Cruz — two or three instruments a year, each one numbered and built in the traditional Spanish style. He began building in 2012, studying one-on-one with luthier Brian Burns in Fort Bragg before working with Al Calderon at ARC Guitars in Winters and Harry Fleishman in Sebastopol — a thorough California-based lutherie education that gave him a strong technical foundation and a clear personal direction. A career firefighter with the Santa Cruz Fire Department, Di Mauro brings the same methodical precision to guitar building that the job demands, and his instruments reflect it: carefully constructed, tastefully appointed, and built to be played.

No. 42 is a traditional Spanish classical guitar in every meaningful sense — European spruce soundboard, Indian rosewood back and sides, ebony fingerboard — but distinguished by one very modern refinement: the fretwork was completed using a PLEK machine, allowing a level of fret leveling and crown precision that is extremely difficult to achieve by hand alone. The result is a setup that plays cleanly and evenly across the entire neck, with no high spots, no dead zones, and perfectly consistent feel from open strings to the upper positions. Current action measures approximately 3.1mm bass and 3.2mm treble at the 12th fret.

The 50mm nut — slightly narrower than the traditional 52mm classical standard — makes this an unusually accessible instrument for players transitioning from steel-string or electric guitar, without feeling out of place in the hands of classical players who simply prefer a more manageable neck width.

The guitar presents with a refined, understated aesthetic: clean Italian spruce soundboard with fine, even grain; a simple rosette and rosewood headplate; dark binding; and an elegant headstock. No unnecessary decoration — just well-chosen materials and considered proportions.

Offered on consignment directly from the builder through Mill Valley Guitars. An unusual opportunity to acquire a handmade California classical guitar at a price well below what most individually built contemporary instruments command.

Note: The instrument bears a 2027 label because the builder originally anticipated offering the guitar the following year; it became available earlier than expected.