A Full-Bodied Tonal Bouquet

Paoletti Guitars Uses Century-Old Wood from Wine Barrels.

- Richard Bienstock

FABRIZIO PAOLETTI BEGAN BUILDING guitars in the Tuscany region of Italy in 2005. He constructed his first instrument—a triple single-coil solid body with an alder body and a sunburst finish—at the request of a friend. The finished product, he recalls, was “not so bad.”

Today, he continues to build instruments under the name Paoletti Guitars, with results that are not only quite stunning, but also wholly unique. In an innovative twist, his guitars and basses feature bodies constructed from the wood of century-old chestnut wine barrels—a nod to his family history, as the Paolettis have been producing Chianti in the region since the 19th century (Fabrizio’s father still operates a small local vineyard).

“My guitars pay reverence to both my passion for the land and my love of all things musical,” says Paoletti. “The first time I came across this idea about repurposing wine barrels, I was with Maurizio Solieri, one of the most famous musicians in Italy. He suggested we test the sound of chestnut on his own Paoletti custom guitar. The result was amazing, so I started to recover all the barrels my grandfather had left to my family. I’m talking about 130- to 150-year-old chestnut wood from abandoned wine barrels in Tuscany—what we call ‘Leonardo da Vinci land.’”