Pierre-Alexandre Bellest

Yvetot, Normandy, France

Working with Pierre-Alexandre Bellest came as a personal recommendation from Dominique Field, the most respected and famed French luthier of today. When the best French luthier of our time tells us a young maker is among the very best, we listen. Bellest works in Yvetot, in the Normandy countryside where he grew up. He began classical guitar at eight at the local conservatory, earned his performance diploma in 2004, and still plays seriously today: it matters to him that he can truly try his own instruments.

His building life began in 2006 with a first guitar made in Stephen Hill's workshop in England, followed by the classical guitar making program at the famous school in Newark, where several other makers on this page also trained, and advanced studies at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan spanning chemistry, physics, organology, restoration, and the construction of early and modern plucked instruments. In 2012 he returned home and opened his own workshop, and there he developed his personal model under the eye of Dominique Field in the most old world way imaginable: he would bring Field a finished guitar, listen, hear exactly what to improve, and return with the next one. Field remains his mentor, and the two still speak often.

Bellest builds traditionally and patiently, mainly with Italian spruce he cuts and dries himself at the workshop, back and sides of Indian rosewood from an old 1990s stock, and French polish throughout. Only seven or eight guitars leave his bench each year, against a waiting list of about three years, each chasing the same goals: bright, deep basses, thick, colorful trebles, fine balance, and great polyphonic separation. His work has been featured in Orfeo Magazine. We are proud to represent his guitars exclusively in North America. The first Bellest built for us, Italian spruce over that old stock Indian rosewood, is expected at the end of 2027, and our expert team is glad to talk with players interested in reserving it ahead of arrival.