ABOUT

Omang guitars are made with love and passion at Sandøya, a little island off the southern coast of Norway, by me, Simen Omang. I've been making guitars for 20 years, opening my first workshop in Oslo in 2005. During these years I've made guitars for guitarists from different genres in Norway and abroad, offered repairs and done research into different parts of the guitar history, particularly the guitar in colonial Latin America. My focus as a guitar maker has been classical guitars and early guitars, making both copies and my own designs.

When I first started to learn the craft of making guitars with Esteban Gonzalez in Buenos Aires in 2002, I found a world of beautiful woods, fascinating skills, creative possibilities, historic depth and an overwhelming complexity. This world still presents me with surprising discoveries and challenges every day. Lutherie is a complex practice that does not easily compare. It is a craft like other crafts, with its techniques and historically rooted knowledge, it is about making things look 'right' yet fresh, about beautiful surfaces, balanced dimensions, designing with the 'hidden rules', about combining materials, and making well functioning objects. But it is also an artistic search for a personal expression in visual and sonorically based esthetics, about finding a sound that is you as a maker. The combination of these challenging tasks are what keeps inspiring and motivating me after so many years of doing this.

I'm fascinated by traditional woodworking techniques and my workshop is predominantly run with hand tools. I like the rhythm of work they impose and the nearness to the material they offer. I also believe the historical ways of making guitars can guide me to further develop my knowledge and understanding of the instrument. You can follow my instagram with updates from my workbench.

Since 2016 I've been engaged in establishing and running an association for instrument makers in Norway. I believe that cooperation between makers are important to make musicians and the trade around instruments aware of the importance of artistically made instruments for all musical life. The guitar making industry that damage the resources, flag out production to low cost countries with limited worker rights, and overproduce instruments nobody really wants, is just bad in so many ways. Luthiers, musician, teachers, institutions, and politician need to walk together to raise conscience about this. NIMF - Norsk instrumentmakerforening - the makers association where I am currently head of board, takes this work seriously and want to gather all good forces. Check out the association here.