Geza Burghardt is a "Luthier Extraordinaire". The best way to describe him is to outline how he does business.

The first parameter that describes him is that he is an expert. Only if you have an extraordinary instrument or you make your living from playing a fine musical instrument do you qualify to hire Geza Burghardt to be your Luthiery. He rejects a lot of business as he already works too many long days just taking care of his demographic.

Geza makes hand made guitars that are in demand around the world. He also repairs and reconditions guitars for world famous classical guitarists.

In the time that he worked on our collection, he also made a base fiddle from scratch, that is, he started by hand carving the back from a slab of maple. He also started several violins. He repaired cellos, base fiddles, violins and guitars during that time. Most of these instruments were worth over $100,000. That is the kind of work that he prefers to do. Our collection was a step back and he only accepted doing it because of the size of the collection. Also, his wife liked the story of the Mario Cesare Collection.

Geza Burghardt is also the unofficial or perhaps even the official Luthier for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He teaches his skills to others who want to learn the skills of old European techniques. He lectures.

To sum up, he is the best luthier in the area and this little story puts it in a nutshell.

I teased that we asked a local music shop owner who to take the instruments to. The owner faced towards the direction Granville Island in Vancouver, extended both arms over his head and then bowed so that his arms pointed the way and then chanted “Geeeezzzzzzaaaaaaaa”.

His history in the business started in a Luthiery shop in Hungary and he learned his trade there. Then there was a little uprising called the Hungarian Revolution and Geza ended up in a camp in Austria for several years. He met his wife there and finally was allowed to come to Canada. In Vancouver he worked in a shop for one of the local music stores and did their stringed instrument repairs. In the early 1990’s he opened his own luthiery shop in Granville Island which is the heart of the cultural district for Vancouver. The reputation he has built is impeccable. He is competent, honest and thorough. He has done business with the musical community for years and knows all the players.

When doing business with him he is very clear and very careful about every detail in a transaction. By being this fastidious, business with Geza does not end up in misunderstandings or disagreements over the terms of business. He does the best work and expects to be paid properly.

With business out of the way, he is interesting, engaging and humorous. He is a delight to work with as long as you understand his terms of business and engage in honest business.