Stephen Bennett - National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion: "My Kathy Wingert harp guitar is an instrument exquisite to behold and an absolute delight to play, both in terms of how it feels to play it and the sound that flows forth. The tone is fat and rich and round and full and sweet and strong all at the same time. Those qualities are consistent from the lowest sub-bass (tuned as low as an E one octave below the standard 6th string) all the way to the highest frets of the first string (which - thanks to the elegant cutaway - I can easily reach)!"
Pat Kirtley - National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion: "Some guitars play great, some guitars look fabulous, some have a powerful, balanced sound. Some makers, like Kathy Wingert, create guitars with all those qualities at once. Her designs demonstrate the merging of music and visual art executed with flair, fine workmanship, and superb attention to detail"
Steve Kaufman - Three time national flatpicking champion: "Kathy Wingert is a luthier whose craftsmanship can only be equaled by her pride in excellence. She builds a heck of a box."
Cosy Sheridan - Singer/Songwriter: "Kathy Wingert's dreadnought guitars are terrific! I love them! They have a deep, resonant response, they can fingerppick and flatpick, and on top of that they're beautiful pieces of art."
___________________________ These are long stories, pour a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Jayne S. describes the process and joy of ordering a custom guitar.
Hal Chernoff tells the moving story of digging deep to let go, and the tools he used to get there.
Aaron Colemantells his story of putting a guitar together in my shop. You will also find my story of working with an extraordinary young man.
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Mike Crixell - Acoustic Players Magazine:I loved your work from the time I picked up one of your guitars for the first time. You bring integrity to your builds and signature tone. APM'ers will appreciate what you do as they learn more, and APM'ers are perpetually hungry to learn more.
Philippe Fouquet (posted to the internet from France): I have a model E Cambodian rosewood/engelman spruce which is really great. It sounds different than any other guitar I ever played. There is always something special happening in the sound while playing. It is always surprising me. It is so much expressive that I find strong emotions with it and a great pleasure to play.
Michael Gleitz(emailed to me from Germany): I find it pretty hard to put in words what´s really special about your guitars. What sets them apart from other high end guitars is the playability and neck feel(I´ve never played a guitar with medium strings with such a left hand feeling) and even more important their ability to express what you feel and want to express in that moment without ever loosing their own character.
Your instruments have a female musicality that hardly(or even impossible) any man can ever reach. I always tell my wife that I can feel and hear that your guitars are build by a woman whose heart and soul is filled with life and music.
Greg Camus (posted to the internet): I have a Wingert, a Model E, German over Cocobolo, which has been teaching me a series of lessons on how to play guitar since I brought her home last summer. This guitar is both elegant and aggressive, with an entrancing, sophisticated recklessness that constantly defies me to restrict it to any single repertoire. This beauty has redefined my music.
Michael Bartlett What a wonderful (Concert Muse) you have made for your 100th guitar! I am proud and
privileged to have it. The first thing I noticed was the Carpathian top.
Wow! It is the finest I have seen, too. And I like the Ryan-style bevel
very much. Jimmi's rosette is beautifully simple and very liquid. Then I
checked out the African Blackwood, which is very nice, indeed. Just as I
had hoped for. The overall look is elegant simplicity.
I tuned it up to DADGAD and could hardly stop playing it. The tone is
loud, bright, and complex. Tons of sustain. And pretty well balanced for
a brand new guitar. This one is fun to play right out of the box! The
setup is ideal and the neck feels like an old friend.
It is also surprisingly heavy, because of the AB, and feels very
substantial for a small bodied guitar. Because of its playability, feel,
and tone, I am not sure what the point is in having a larger guitar."
Fran Guidry: My E has a big full bass out of proportion to its size. The trebles on my Wingert are thick and round. The other characteristic that Kathy strives for is wide dynamic range. She's a trained classical player and has a feel for building a guitar that goes from a whisper to a full throated shout.
Boggs (posted to the internet): I had the sincere priviledge of playing one of Kathy Wingert's Cocobolo and Adirondak creations and there is absolutely no way I can do justice to describe how perfect an instrument that was!! ABSOLUTE PERFECTION! tone, balance, playability, responsiveness, sheer beauty... To make things even more perfect, Kathy restrung it before putting it into my hands and insisted I spend as much time with it (at the luthiers' consortium in her room where it was quiet) as I would like... I genuinely felt unworthy... but that guitar made me a better player immediately. My best experience with an instrument ever...
To make things even MORE perfect yet, meeting Kathy was just something special. She was the most humble, down-to-earth, lovely, sweet woman you would ever want to meet. The lady is a gem, without a doubt! I will never forget that. I only played her guitar, guys, so don't get any wrong ideas... She is absolutely tops on my list of luthiers and is a truly special person on top of it, and if you see her, you can tell her that Boggs says so and I have never forgotten.
Stephen Hall:I recently purchased #5 of 10 of your Dream series E from Paul at Dream Guitars. I am absolutely in love with the workmanship, the
guitar's aesthetics, its sound and its playability. All the best and many thanks for building my awesome Wingert guitar!
