Jacaranda, since 1999.
A luthier workshop born when two makers shared the same dream: to create electric guitars and basses without the constraints of industrial production. Today, that mission remains the same.
A quality mission.
Jacaranda was founded in 1999. Since the early 2000s, every instrument has taken shape in our present home — a workshop and showroom with two windows on Via Corsico, a small restricted-access street that opens onto the Alzaia Naviglio Grande — entirely by hand.
Working in the Navigli district today is a privilege. Since we opened, we have watched the neighbourhood change completely, while our workshop has remained a constant.
Where instruments are born.
The workshop and showroom
At Via Corsico 8/a, the workshop and showroom share the same space: a welcoming area where you can see and try instruments with our amplifiers, and, in plain view, the workbenches where Jacaranda guitars and basses take shape, from raw timber to final set-up.
Today
Jacaranda is a recognized and listed brand with a national and international following: custom instruments in the hands of professionals and enthusiasts, and a workshop that cares for electric guitars and basses of every brand each week.
Daniele Fierro, the artisan face of Jacaranda.
I'm a boomer. My passion for music took off in the mid-1970s: independent radio stations, jukeboxes, and the first records I bought with my own money. Then I passed my exams and already knew what I wanted as a gift: a guitar!
The following years were essential to my development: lessons, bands, rehearsal rooms, and the chance to attend the many concerts that, after a long absence, were once again coming to Italy.
But my passion for playing guitar soon became something different. Playing it was no longer enough: I wanted to learn how to build one!
In 1982, at nineteen, I began attending Carlo Raspagni's lutherie school. He was an important luthier working near Milan. For four years, four days a week, I learned to build acoustic guitars. In my final year, after seeing Jaco Pastorius, I made my first four-string solid-body instrument. It was the beginning of another passion alongside lutherie: the electric bass.
Over the next ten years, I worked by day repairing instruments for shops and distributors, gaining experience with instruments at every price point. Meanwhile, I built my first basses and guitars. In the evenings, I played bass in Milan's live-music venues.
In 1999, it was time to take the next step. Together with Luca Quiriconi, I founded Liuteria Artigiana Jacaranda, with the aim of building electric instruments entirely by hand.
Before long, the Jacaranda name became known across Italy, and production reached fifty instruments a year.
We chose the workshop's location because of my connection to the neighbourhood where I grew up: the Navigli. At the time, the area had not yet been overtaken by bars and restaurants. Long-established businesses, including restorers' and painters' workshops, were beginning to close. Soon, the few remaining venues where you could hear live music would close too.
Today, I personally carry Jacaranda forward, drawing on forty years of experience and more than twenty-five years working under this name.
With the same passion as ever.
- 1982
- CARLO RASPAGNI'S WORKSHOP
- 1986
- MY FIRST WORKSHOP IN MILAN
- 1999
- WORKSHOP IN THE NAVIGLI DISTRICT
The team
A small group of luthiers led by Daniele Fierro: skilled hands, experience, and a shared idea of what an instrument should be — functional, elegant, and unmistakably individual.
Jacaranda is a team built around me — Daniele Fierro — and I chose its members for the passion we share and their talent.
Behind me, from left to right, ending with the youngest, are my collaborators.
Tom Porta
A guitarist, photographer, and motorcyclist, his main pursuit is painting and drawing. As I always say: “He's the artist; we're the craftspeople.”
At Jacaranda, he handles the relic work on our instruments. Among others, he has “aged” Sting's bass.
Stefano Melchiorre
An excellent guitarist and professional musician, Stefano welcomes customers who bring in their instruments and those interested in trying what we have on display. He carries out the final test of guitars that come through our workshop for service.
Samuel Domeneghini
A graduate of Milan's Civica School of Lutherie, Samuel has been my right-hand man in the workshop for years. He also works independently as a luthier specialising in acoustic guitars, mandolins, and bouzoukis — all instruments he plays with his bluegrass band.
Davide Corbetta
Also a graduate of Milan's Civica School of Lutherie, Davide plays both bass and guitar. In the workshop, he's my left-hand man — fittingly, since he's left-handed. He has the final say on left-handed guitars and basses before delivery.
The door on the Navigli is open.
From the shop window, Jacaranda may look like a store, but it is, in every sense, a craft workshop.
Drop in during opening hours, or make an appointment.
You can see and try the instruments, and talk with the people who build them.