“The Dolorosa” is the first guitar, or as they put in jargon, the number “0” by luthier Marco Sellitto.

The story of this guitar goes hand in hand with the birth of my Atelier.

The sound of this guitar was resolutely inspired by that of master luthier Antonio De Torres. As it is showcased by this instrument and by those which followed it, ever since beginning my activity tradition is the only aesthetic sound matrix I used as a reference in my research. I tried to enhance this aesthetic principle and further develop it, however always keeping within its basic guidelines. With this guitar comes to life the Marco Sellitto Atelier of classical guitar lutherie. A few years later I met the distinguished master Angelo Gilardino who after trying one of our guitars wrote the article which you can find on our website (Play News, May 2014) at the following link:

https://marcosellitto.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ARTICOLO-originale-Suonare-News-MAGGIO-2014.pdf

I wish once more to stress the fact that from the first guitar I manufactured in my Atelier to the very last, my notion of sound has never changed. Indeed it has remained the same, thereby showing a coherence of ideas which – as far as sound goes – enabled me to set down guidelines and principles already present and well defined at the very inception of my luthier’s work. Nor has my Atelier ever come up with different types of sounds and /or projects, were it only for commercial reasons: (like offering our customers at one and the same time guitars modelled after Hauser, or Torres, or double top guitars, and so on). On the contrary, my Atelier has always had, and exclusively worked to achieve a sound of its own and hence one proposal, one project and, ultimately, one sound, in the wake of a long-established tradition rooted in the past. I drew my inspiration from such masters as Antonio de Torres and Francisco Simplicio because their aesthetics of sound happens to thoroughly interface with my own. Starting from the sound created by these two great masters I have incessantly striven to polish it even further, arriving, after about ten years of research and development, to the realization and definition of a sound all my own, through the development of my original project for a classical guitar. It started shaping up in 2018 with the “Forerunner Guitar” (la “Capostipite”), attaining its full and final stage with the “Foundress” (la “Fondatrice”), which is the first guitar of our “second era”, embodying the complete and final version of my project for a classical guitar. Let me stress it once more, this has been the one and only guitar I have ever offered.