Peter Damm Guitarmaker
Repairs, Maintanance and Newly Created Musical Instruments
Biography
Peter made his first violin when he was four years old. He copied an old violin that was already in his parental house. The home-made violin was not playable because it was made out of thin plywood. He carefully traced the outline of the violin onto a sheet of plywood
and cut out it's shape with a coping saw.
So in fact this was his first attempt to build a musical instrument. He knew from this early
age on what he wanted to do in life. Therefore he first became a carpenter, but that was
too rough. He then decided to study further to become a furniture-maker and studied woodcarving and sculpture. Later he followed in the footsteps of his teacher and tought woodcarving and sculpture for more than six years in different places. He also became
friends with a guitar-builder from Zaandam, who taught him the basics and Peter worked
for him as an apprentice.
He tried to find as many books about the subject as possible and did a lot of home-study.
Later in 1985 he studied guitarmaking at Robberts guitars in Hoorn and left Robberts after
a year or so. Ten years later in 1995 he saw an add in the newspaper that Robberts had relocated to Hilversum and had a grand opening. He decided to go and from then on
worked for Robberts for six and a half years, creating new instruments and repairing many
others.
Then he was asked to work for the Crafter Guitars importer who was searching for a specialist. Peter worked there for five years. There he did the setup for all the Crafter
Guitars and repaired some of them before they were shipped to the musicstores. After this
he worked for three years at the Peerless Guitar importer. He was offered an official endorsement from both Crafter- and the Peerless Guitar factories when they heard him
play his music, and Peter still plays those instruments that he got from them. At this moment he has built and repaired guitars and basses for more than 35 years.
In 2004 he Married Elise, a Dutch music-teacher. Together they bought a big house where
he has his own workshop and where he sells guitars, basses, strings and other related
items. His new workshop was added in 2010 this is solely for creating new instruments
and it's the place for the students to learn how to build a guitar or bass.
In 2006 they had a daughter called Hannah Katie, and in 2008 a boy was born; Daniel
George Thomas. 2007 was his 25th anniversary as a guitarmaker. His Company is called: Magic & Music productions and is situated in Breukelen, The Netherlands.
the sofar untold and almost forgotten story
Toen ik ongeveer 9 of 10 was heb ik een elektrische gitaar gemaakt van dat oude spaanplaat, wat bijna uit elkaar viel als je aan de zijkant er met je hand overheen ging. De body, gebaseerd op een strat met eigen ideeën was heel erg groot en had ik wit geschilderd. De hals was van Beukenhout met een triplex inlegstrip en had echte stemmechanieken van mijn oude eerste gitaar. De achterkant van de hals was vrij dik, maar wel met een vijl, die ook op zolder lag, goed vormgegeven. Fretjes had ik gemaakt van metaaldraad en gelijmd in daarvoor gemaakte zaagsneden en zelfs de scherpe uiteinden schuin gevijld. Ook zaten er op de body echte potmeters en knoppen die ik op zolder had gevonden. Dat waren overblijfselen van mijn vaders hobby, uit de tijd dat hij met radio's knutselde. Een krulsnoer met zeer grote echte jackplug met boutjes afkomstig van een oude koptelefoon of iets dergelijks was het snoer. Snaren had ik er ook op, maar ik weet niet meer hoe ik die had bevestigd aan de body. En hoe de brug eruit zag weet ik ook niet meer.
Later:
In de 6e klas van de lagere school hadden wij een uitvoering op het grote toneel en kon ik mooi de gitaar gebruiken die ik veel eerder had gemaakt. Na een aantal keren te hebben geoefend stonden we op het toneel te play-backen op wat ik dacht Lola van The Kings. We hadden van een van de moeders speciaal spul op ons gezicht gesmeerd gekregen wat onder de hete lampen op zweet zou lijken. Nep zweet dus. We hadden in elk geval veel succes en met die prachtige gitaar was het net echt. Later heb ik de gitaar cadeau gedaan aan een overbuurjongen van de Vries uit de Dahliastraat in Koog aan de Zaan waar ik 21 jaar gewoond heb.