Velké Němčice (Czech Republic) (AFP)

Born at the time of a shortage of guitars in the former communist Czechoslovakia, the Furch family business today supplies world stars with exceptional instruments made in its workshop located in a former mill.

American virtuoso Al Di Meola, songwriter Suzanne Vega and Per Gessle of Swedish rock duo Roxette all play Furch guitars.

We are far from the very modest beginnings of the brand.

"I had a little green notebook where I wrote down the names of the buyers. It was progressing well but at the same time it was dangerous because private business was illegal" under the communist regime, the company founder told AFP, Frantisek Furch.

The 62-year-old former metallurgist sold his first guitar in 1981, when Czechoslovakia was to live for another eight years under Moscow rule.

So he risked up to ten years in prison. It was not until 1988 that the Communist government allowed private companies.

A year later, the regime fell, and in 1993 Czechoslovakia split peacefully, to found the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The Furch workshop, which initially took two months to build a guitar, began to develop. By 1990 he already had seven employees and made his first sale abroad - a mandolin.

Today, the company has more than 60 employees and manufactures 7,000 guitars per year, which it sells in Germany, Scandinavia, France, Japan, Great Britain and the United States, as well as to the market local.

- "Simply fascinating" -

"We are very different from the others", insists Petr, son of Frantisek Furch and current general manager of the house.

“Our guitars enclose a lot of craftsmanship that you can't see. There are dozens if not hundreds of details that combine to make the sound and the quality of the product,” says 36-year-old Petr Furch.

Furch supplied guitars to many Czech musicians, including singer and songwriter Thom Artway.

"I love the story of this family, it's just fascinating," the 27-year-old star told AFP.

"And then this guitar hears the tones I want to get, it knows how I want to play them, it just does whatever I want," he says.

The Czech brand has just opened a distribution point in the large American music hub in Nashville, Tennessee, and Frantisek Furch is already delighted at the idea of ​​top-level artists playing on his guitars.

"I am happy that proposals come from their side, not from ours, and that we have so many personalities among our customers", he affirms before adding: "I think that Eric Clapton could point him also, one day. "

© 2020 AFP