Johann Georg Stauffer

Johann Georg Stauffer ( Johann Georg Staufer, born 26 January 1778 in Vienna, † 24 January 1853 ) was an Austrian luthier and the most important Viennese guitar maker.

Life

Stauffer was born as the son of Mathias Stauffer, one was from Weyregg laborer in the suburbs of Vienna Weißgerber. He learned violin with Franz Geissenhof. After he had taken the oath of citizenship in Vienna on 20 June 1800, and married on 16 May 1802 in the Vienna Scots Church Josepha fisherman, he took over the workshop of Ignaz Christian Bartl. At first, he built entirely modeled after the Italian guitar master Giovanni Battista Gaetano Vinaccia Fabricatore and then developed, according to the perfecting of those models for several variants, typical of his guitar style (see section instruments).

1813/14 he applied for the vacant position as Hofgeigenmacher, with him but Johann Martin Stoss was preferred. 1830-1836 Stauffer was also active as a music publisher. He turned in these years more and more to his inventions, which probably is the reason for the beginning of the serious financial problems. Already in 1829 he made ​​representations to the City Council with the request for an advance of 1,000 guilders. 1831/32 he had impoverished the debt Arrest and 1832 the garnishment. He then worked well temporarily in the workshop of his son Johann Anton before for a short time in Kassa (today Kosice / Slovakia) settled. The last period of his life spent Stauffer in Vienna's St. Marx citizens care home, where he could continue to work in a small workshop in his ideas to the guitar and other instruments. There he developed several guitars with completely new concepts (including guitars with oval body and a double bottom ), which were always provided with the label " According to the latest acoustic improvement of Johann Georg Stauffer manufactured in Vienna, highway 572 ". 1853 finally he died impoverished in paralysis of the lungs.

Johann Georg Stauffer had two sons:

• The guitar maker and sound artist Johann Anton Stauffer ( 1805 - after 1871 ), the 1833, the workshop of his father took over, but it was only built in 1836 under his own name, and
• The pianist Franz Stauffer (1803 -? ), the public appearance in Vienna in the year 1812.

Instruments

The Viennese guitar model is a substantially by Johann Georg Stauffer embossed type of guitar along with a curved bottom, narrower waist and connector dock. 1822 received Stauffer together with Johann Ertl an imperial privilege for improvement of the guitar, focusing on the increase of the fingerboard and its separation from the soundboard, the development of mechanics ( " screw machine " ) and the use of embedded metal frets moved.

Until 1825/30 the instruments were usually fitted with a head plate in 8 -shape. 1825 invented Johann Georg Stauffer named after him voting mechanism: vortex plate of metal with asymmetrical volutenartigem head, guided by the plate vortex pins with worm gear and lateral vortices with button; the vortices are arranged row on the right side of the vertebral plate. Such mechanisms ( Stauffer style) are still used today, for example, made by the firm Rodgers.

1823 JG Stauffer built his arpeggione, a string instrument, the characteristics of the guitar and the cello combines in itself. Franz Schubert (1797-1828), who also had a Stauffer guitar, wrote his Sonata for arpeggione and piano in A minor (D 821 ) for this otherwise almost unnoticed instrument. Stauffer experimented beyond with new forms of violin and guitar counterpoint. Some of these inventions had to be rejected along with various structural ideas at the same time of the later acting in Pest instrument maker Peter Teufelsdorfer, which led to violent quarrels authorship.

The list of his instruments bear either his initials or the name " Johann Georg Staufer ".

Stauffer and C. F. Martin

The founder of Martin Guitars, Christian Frederick Martin Sr., born 1796 in Mark Neukirchen, initially trained by his father, Johann Georg Martin. At 15, he went to Vienna to complete an apprenticeship with Stauffer. Christian Friedrich took it to his workshop due to his skill to the foreman. The marriage with the Viennese carpenter and instrument makers daughter Ottilie Lucia coolness prompted Martin obviously to leave Stauffer, because he found a new position in the workshop of his father. Overall, he remained 14 years in Vienna, after which he returned to his hometown and opened his own shop. After a dispute with the Guild of violin-maker of the town of Neukirchen he emigrated to America, where he to 1833/36, for example, developed by Stauffer mechanics introduced.

In 2008, the 175th anniversary of the Martin Company 50 pieces of " Martin 00 Stauffer 175th " were manufactured and sold worldwide, the tribute to the master of the company founder in a special way.