Maestro Guitars is a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

manufacturing company based in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. It is best known for creating custom-made

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

s and

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

s. The founder is Ho Zen Yong, a former Singapore Management University (SMU) graduate. Their instruments are used by professional Italian musician

Franco Morone Francesco Morone (born June 6, 1956, Lanciano, Abruzzo, Italy) known as Franco Morone, is an Italian guitar player, teacher, composer and arranger specializing in the fingerstyle technique. He is the author of several books and has recorded CDs ...

and were also used by guitarist Paul Ponnudorai.

History

The founder of Maestro Guitars, Ho Zen, started off learning how to fix guitars in his father’s piano shop. In 2004, he improved his guitar-making skills by learning them from an English

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

Chris Horton, in Goa. He further understudied with the famed Ervin Somogyi in 2015 in bid to increase the responsiveness of his guitars. Upon his return in 2006, Ho Zen started Maestro Guitars Singapore's workshop in Kaki Bukit. The company's name, Maestro, was inspired by the Spanish word of the same spelling which translates to mean "master". In music, a "maestro" refers to someone who is a master in his art, especially a composer, conductor or music teacher. In 2015, Maestro Guitars launched two new acoustic guitar models and showcasing a few models from their Double Top Series and Island Series ukuleles at the NAMM Show.

Company Profile

Maestro Guitars is best known for its custom-made guitars. The guitars are handcrafted in a 100% humidity controlled facility to ensure its stability and dependability. They also use new technology such as the flame-resistant material,

Nomex Nomex is a flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967. Properties Nomex and related aramid polymers are related to nylon, but have aromatic backbones, and hence are more rigid and mo ...

, to craft their guitars. The company is presently looking to expand to Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Malaysia. Their products are also available in Australia, Belgium and France. The company works with various companies to provide materials for their custom-made guitars, such as Elixir Strings, Grover Musical Products and d'Addario.

References

External links

* {{Guitar brands Guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Singapore Singaporean brands 2004 establishments in Singapore