Manfred Pietrzok put the first Manzanita label into a guitar's soundhole around 1985. The story of the old spanish Sherry bottle, that we owe our logo to, may be told at another place. Neither shall we give a lecture on the Californian Manzanita tree (arctostaphylos pungens) that gave us our name.
But it took another 8 years for M.Pietrzok and Moritz Sattler to found Manzanita Guitars. Special things in life do take time to mature. Guitars as well as luthiers!
So, in 1993 Pietrzok and Sattler decided to offer their guitars under one label. Combining traditional craft, modern design and new ideas their instruments offer a tonal quality that industrially made guitars are not able to achieve.Still, each of them has kept his identity as a luthier.
Moritz Sattler is concentrating more and more on reproducing and perfecting classical American steelstring guitars. Manfred Pietrzok - slide crazy - is breaking new ground with his resophonic and hollowneck instruments.In 1997 the Manzanita palette was completed by Jörg Driesner. Since then we had a set of nice lapsteels and electrics in our program.