As a young teenager my first interest for the guitar came naturally toward the playing. I studied guitar in late 80’s with Alvaro Pierri in Montreal (B.MUS. and a Master in performance from McGill University). After receiving a grant from the state, I went studying in Paris for 2 years with the argentinian guitarist Roberto Aussel. I used to play on Friederich guitars since 1984 (no.557). When I was studying in Paris I’ve met Daniel many times at his shop and at guitar concerts and I asked him a new guitar. He started to make my guitar in spring 1999 (no.763). I was already fascinated just imagining Friederich making my own guitar, assembling the pieces that would make a fantastic instruments. My father used to built furniture as a hobby and looking and helping him certainly contributed to develop an interest for woodworking. So, I thought at the time that I could combine my passion for the guitar and this mysterious fascination for the wood to make a guitar myself while Daniel was building mine. I asked a close friend, a very well known and excellent maker (Jean Rompré), to teach me everything about guitar making and tools. I worked very hard that summer in his shop and the resulting guitar was very satisfaying. I naturally copied my first Friederich and I had even some advices from him since he finished my guitar before me in july 1999. We studied very deeply three Friederich even doing some X-rays and measuring precisely every parts of the guitar. Those were precious teachings. Later I was invited twice in the shop of Olivier Fanton D’Andon in France where he kindly showed me most of his tips about making. I still use today many of his building techniques and he inspired me lots of jigs and technical refinements to increase precision and repeatability. So my perspective about guitar have been strongly influenced by Daniel Friederich not only because I’m playing since so many years on his guitars but also because I was hearing my teachers, Pierri and Aussel, playing the same instrument. Which was an incredible school for a student and contributed to developp a special attention to every aspects of the tone production. Those skills I developped became very helpful as a maker. I have made my own experiments for some aspects (solera shape, neck stiffness, bracing variations, etc). I worked with an extraordinary engineer to develop a machine that measure Young modulus (stiffness) both longitudinal and radial and Q factor of the woods. These measurements where based on what Daniel was doing but in a more scientific or computer approach. It is also very easy to adapt the machine to measure different aspects : choosing brace by stiffness, measuring the bridge, neck or top deflection. I used also the machine during the process of building to measure and adjust stiffness (which will affect response, sustain, etc). I can use it also to measure finished instruments to compare. I work with Qingchuan since 15 months now and he asked me to make a replica of Daniel’s work. After thinking for a while about the idea, I decided that making a tribute or an Hommage to Daniel would be an obvious and natural way of thanking him for having influenced and enlightened my life as a musician and a maker since so many years. I have seen a lot of Friederich model from other makers but I thought that making one with an original one beside me and with my accumulated knowledge on his making would be an asset to get closer to the master. This meant doing all the purflings, bindings and the rosette as close as possible of the original but also the bracing and the thicknesses of every parts. I think I came within the range of his own variations for the visual aspect and the sound is definitely recognizable. My guitars are made with the best wood available. I use Western Red Cedar from Vancouver Island and european Spruce from Swiss. I have also some excellent Englemann Spruce from western Canada. For the back and sides, I prefer Indian Rosewood for his straight grain, quarter cut and stability. I choosed myself this wood in Cochi, India in 2006. The neck is made out of Mahogany from Honduras and the fingerboard from african ebony. The tuners I use depends of the customer desire. It could be Sloane, Graf or Scheller from Germany. I use Rodgers on the Friderich Hommage model.