Before becoming a luthier, Sylvain Courcelles taught music for six years. His passion for music and wood lead him towards luthiery. From 1990 to 1994, he completed a bachelor’s degree in interpretation at l’Université de Montreal. He also spent a year studying guitar making at College Edouard-Montpetit. Then pursuing his research he opened his own workshop.

Sylvain Courcelles has been carrying on his work as a luthier for the past 25 years. He is a specialist in the fabrication, restoration and reparation of classical, acoustic, jazz, and electric guitars giving great importance to research and creation.

In building his guitars, he favours blending the jazz and classical approaches for the instrument’s structure and comfort. This unique mix has become the hallmark of his work. Making his instruments by special order, on average he creates three instruments a year.

He restores all types of guitars built between 1920 and 1968. His research is focused on the instrument’s sound board (top)…its shape thickness and the positioning of its braces. This constitutes the “soul” of the instrument. Shaping the neck and choosing the correct fret size are also of prime consideration as these factors subtly affect the instrument’s sound. His clients range from professional and amateur musicians to music students and collectors.