Voiced by Hand: Joel Di Mauro Guitars
By Julie Horner
Personal relationships. It’s all about the bond between musician and instrument with a guitar that is “voiced” by hand. And craftsmanship, which is a reflection of the skill, judgment, and attitude of the luthier who uses his tools with the necessary freedom to carry out the work. Joel Di Mauro started building in 2012 from his home studio on Graham Hill Road. He studied one-on-one with Brian Burns, a luthier in Fort Bragg, how to build nylon strung guitars. Now from a sunlit workshop overlooking Capitola Village, Joel practices his craft with reverence, thankful for the gifts that hard work has won.
Joel builds two or three guitars a year, but he doesn’t do commission work, “I think that takes the fun out of it,” he said. Joel is a career firefighter, now with the Santa Cruz Fire Department Station, Westside. As he gets closer to retirement, in another few years, he says, he plans to dedicate more time to making instruments.
Sylvan Music on Mission Street in Santa Cruz has been buying Joel’s guitars since 2014. “They bought guitars #4 and #5 from me, and since then they’ve bought 12 guitars off of me of the 35 I’ve completed.” His guitars sell quickly, Joel said, lasting only two or three months on the wall. His guitars have also been on display at Santa Cruz Guitar Company, Bourgeois Guitars in Maine, Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, and Guitar Solo in San Francisco. Joel finds himself among the elites. “Just to have my guitars up there amongst those legendary luthiers and builders, that’s very very nice to see, I’m honored.”
Joel recently purchased a collection of high end, well aged wood from Kenny Hill, the Ben Lomond luthier who has just retired from his business, Hill Guitar Company. “Kenny’s been a great resource for me. I’ve hung out at his shop, we have lunch, and he’s answered a ton of my questions. What he’s done for the nylon string guitar world is huge.” The collection includes old growth redwood, Indian rosewood, and cedar. He has spruce, he says, that was cut from the same region in Italy where Stratovarius sourced the wood for his violins. Joel says he has enough good wood from Kenny’s shop to get to guitar #49. Right now he’s planning for guitars #36, #37, and #38 using the Indian rosewood from the Kenny Hill collection.
The headstock design and rosettes are particular to the luthier. Joel prefers a simple, bold headstock without ornament, and his rosettes, the wood inlay surrounding the sound hole, feature rings of colored wood, setting his style apart from other makers. He uses minimal decoration, avoiding the contrasting purfling that some makers use to bind the edges of the top in favor of the natural beauty of the wood without interruption. The back of a Di Mauro guitar has a strip of ebony running down the middle where the wood is joined, another signature touch. Inside a Di Mauro guitar, you might also find a tiny artwork by Joel’s partner, Julie Di Mauro, who passed away in 2019. The pair were in the band JnJ Dynamite with Joel’s twin brother Dustin Di Mauro. Julie was known for her distinctive voice, creative songwriting, and her paintings and jewelry. “She was an inspiration,” Joel said.
A Di Mauro handmade guitar is still relatively affordable, under $6,000. Joel said, “They say it takes about 50 guitars for a luthier to establish his style and his aesthetics and everything. I’m at 35 now completed, so I’m getting there! I can feel it, and I can see it, which is pretty exciting!”
On Instagram: @joeldimauroguitars
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Photo of Joel Di Mauro in his studio by Julie Horner
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