Instrument show at the Eugene Hult Center during the Bach Festival, where Anders Sterner and Jeffrey Elliott were the featured classical guitar makers.

On being a guitar luthier

Luthierie is a dream vocation for me. It encompasses so many areas of expertise: acoustics, architecture, woodworking, business, and more. It continually challenges one to wear many "hats", perhaps with mastery of a few as the prize. It's very difficult to ever be bored, lost in the pursuit of the perfect instrument that keeps revealing itself to your soul as both a sweet sound and a beautiful image.

Taking these few pieces of plants that once were alive, and combining them into something living again is an amazing experience. The result is music, and it's been the main spiritual force throughout my life. To be able to put this energy, in my small way, back into the world is the greatest mission I can think of...

Biography

Anders Sterner grew up surrounded by music in one of the most traditional provinces in Sweden. At age five, he built Lego guitars and dreamt of being a carpenter. In second grade he studied the obligatory recorder, and was urged to continue further with wind instruments. Instead, Anders began studying classical guitar at nine, and instantly fell in love with that style of music. These formative years were often highlighted by vacations spent in Alicante, Mallorca, and Malaga, Spain, and the atmosphere of Spain became a major influence in his life.

In 1978, at the age of 13, Anders and his parents moved to the United States leaving three older sisters behind in Europe. Throughout this time, guitar continued to be not so much a hobby as a passion and a best friend. In school, science was always of great interest to him, and he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Oregon.

In 1998, while working in his family's aviation business, great friend and guitarist David Franzen invited him on a field trip. They went to visit the workshop of Robert and Orville Milburn, where the initial spark for lutherie was struck. Anders immediately started studying lutherie, and dedicated himself full-time in 2000. After focusing on construction methods and quality control, Anders transitioned to full time acoustic research and development in 2002. Throughout his career, development has been continuous, exciting, and relentless. Teachers and influences early on were Jeffrey Elliott with voicing and construction of his unique design, and Bob and Orville Milburn with general guitar construction and marquetry. Other information was gleaned from Robert Ruck and Tom Blackshear. Since then, Anders has had a long and fruitful friendship with great flamenco and classical maker, John Park, of Canada. Together, they have pushed each other’s boundaries with deep conversations about acoustics and construction. Mr. Park has been instrumental in shaping Anders’ identity as a luthier.

From the mid-2000s, Anders focus has been on studying the acoustic “tricks”of the old Spanish masters, including Fleta, Santos, and Esteso. In the last 5-7 years, the focus has been on incorporating the progress made by the French masters, Bouchet and Friederich. The goal has always been to understand the various elements and acoustic treatments of the old Masters’ guitars. Anders strives to selectively incorporate these features in his guitars to achieve the tone he and clients are looking for.