Galeazzo Frudua

From Wiki Frudua

Galeazzo Frudua (Albizzate, VA, 1964) is an Italian luthier, musician, educator, communication specialist and lutherie teacher.

Trainer

He began studying communication and NLP in 1995 (Master Practitioner Level). He applied these studies straight away to the development of his lutherie business, founded in Imola in 1988, and later to the creation of several successful musical instrument brands (Frudua Guitar Works, The Valve Amplifiers, Tuscany Guitars) and of a number of YouTube channels with more than 200,000 subscribers and almost 40 million views.

He has worked as a coach, consultant and customer care and sales trainer for a range of companies, including Ehiweb, Ediscom, Imola Bevande, Ditta Musto, Aliprestito, Castellari S.r.l. and Indicta.

Since 2015 he has been responsible for sales and customer care training at EHIWEB, a young internet provider based in Bologna. The collaboration has brought the company a steady annual revenue increase of 10 to 12%. Ehiweb went on to take first place in the Trustpilot comparisons the company ran against Italy's leading internet providers, ahead of industry giants such as TIM, Vodafone, WINDTRE and Tiscali.

Ehiweb also placed third in the study "Migliori in Italia - Campioni del servizio 2019/2020", published in Affari & Finanza, the business supplement of the newspaper la Repubblica.

The quality of the service is well enough known nationally that Ehiweb's staff are regularly cited as an example of excellence in the regional training courses run by CESCOT.

Luthier

A musician by background, in 1982 he attended IPIALL, the international school of violin making in Cremona, studying under Bissolotti and Vaia.

He started working as a luthier in the 1980s, building electric and semi-acoustic guitars. In September 1988 he founded Frudua Guitar Works in Imola, initially as an instrument repair workshop, later specialising in handmade guitars and basses.

Frudua Guitar Works and musicians

Within about ten years his instruments were being played by a number of Italian and international musicians, among them Andrea Fornili of Stadio, Gianni Civitenga (with Ennio Morricone's orchestra), David Rhodes (on Peter Gabriel's tours), Jimmy Earl, Andrea Braido (for whom he became the exclusive supplier, and who played Frudua guitars on Vasco Rossi's Gli spari sopra tour, as well as with Adriano Celentano and Laura Pausini), Faso of Elio e le Storie Tese, Giorgio Cocilovo, Paolo Costa, Massimo Varini (who played them with Nek and Gianluca Grignani) and Riccardo Fioravanti.

The full list of musicians who have played his instruments is published online.

In 1997 his company was the subject of a degree thesis at IULM University in Milan, titled «Strategia e comunicazione nel settore delle chitarre elettriche in Italia. Il caso Frudua Guitar Works» (Strategy and communication in the Italian electric guitar market. The Frudua Guitar Works case).

Frudua is also cited in other academic theses for his educational work in the field of electric lutherie, including Musica ed Open Design, Analisi critica dei metodi didattici a stampa e del curricolo per chitarra elettrica and L'evoluzione della chitarra jazz contemporanea da Bill Frisell a Julian Lage.

Frudua instruments and The Valve products in the Italian and international specialist music press.

Technical contributions

Frudua was cited in the English Wikipedia article on the Fender Stratocaster for demonstrating on video that the Stratocaster holds its tuning even under very heavy use of the vibrato.

He identified and codified the Frudua intonation pattern, observing that on a correctly intonated electric guitar the relative position of the bridge saddles follows a recurring and essentially constant pattern, regardless of their absolute position on the bridge.

He also devised and published a procedure that reduces the setup of a Floyd Rose vibrato bridge to a few minutes, presented in a dedicated video.

Talent Scout

Over the course of his work as a luthier, Frudua spotted and promoted several young Italian musicians at the start of their careers, involving them as demonstrators for his instruments. They include David Caraccio, Mattia Tedesco, Maurizio Mariani and Luca Milieri, all of whom went on to professional careers in music, working with leading Italian artists.

Entrepreneur

The Valve amplifiers

In 2003 he scaled back Italian production of stringed instruments to a few commissioned pieces a year, in order to concentrate on handmade amplifiers under the The Valve brand.

The amplifiers, sold mainly abroad, were built entirely in Bologna and were used over the years by well-known Italian musicians such as Andrea Braido and Dodi Battaglia, and by international players including David Rhodes (on Peter Gabriel's tours), Carl Verheyen (on Supertramp's tours), Zlatko Perica, who used a The Valve 3|100 head for a well-known Swatch commercial (Swatch Volleyball Worldtour 2009), LeBurn Maddox, Lolo Alvarez and Ralf Yung (DigiTech).

Production ended in 2010.

Production in Asia

In 2009 he created the Frudua Direct Deal line of guitars and basses, an Italian brand reproducing Frudua Guitar Works instruments, built in Korea and sold direct at accessible prices, along with other brands made in Indonesia: Tuscany Guitars and Exlusive Guitars, which comprise several lines inspired by instruments of the past.

Tuscany guitars have been listed in the international yearbook "The Official Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide".

Players of these instruments include Carlitos Del Puerto (on Chick Corea's tours), Faso of Elio e le Storie Tese, vlogger David Caraccio, Dave Marks, Marco Siniscalco, Maurizio Mariani, Luca Milieri, Felice del Gaudio and Daniele Gottardo. The full list is published online.

Production of these instruments ended around 2013 and gave rise to a number of spin-offs still on the market today.

Musician

Described by Dodi Battaglia of Pooh as an "eclectic musician from Bologna", he has made occasional appearances on major Italian television programmes, including "Momenti di Gloria" (Canale 5) and X Factor. He is internationally recognised as one of the leading experts on the Beatles' vocals and harmonies, having broken down and reproduced the vocal harmonies of more than 130 songs, published on the YouTube channel Beatles Vocal Harmony, devoted to the Liverpool band.

He has also dissected the harmonies of songs by other artists, among them Simon & Garfunkel, Bon Jovi, the Beach Boys and Katy Perry. He is the only musician in the world to have broken down and recreated the harmonies of the operatic section of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Recording work

In 2004 he worked with record executive and producer Alberto Zeppieri, a founding partner of Virgin Radio Italia, on Beât Lès, a project reworking the Beatles' repertoire in the Friulian language.

Between 2015 and 2016 he produced several songs by singer-songwriter Mecco Villani from Ascoli Piceno, co-writing the lyrics with author and writer Stefano Diotallevi.

Since 2016 he has worked as a vocal arranger with the American band The Grimm, writing the vocal arrangements for two albums, The Grimm - Lost Tracks 1 and The Grimm - Lost Tracks 2.

In 2019 he sang backing vocals on Tricarico's single Abbracciami fortissimo (credits), for which he also wrote the vocal arrangements.

One of his compositions, Because of You, was performed in a video published in 2014 by Italian singer and actress Simona Rodano, who is based in New York and has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall.

He has also worked with Vinnie Favale, the CBS executive in charge of late night programming and therefore of the Late Show with David Letterman, writing some Beatles-style arrangements for the musical Hereafter, for which Favale wrote the book, music and lyrics.

Lutherie teacher

Since 2010 he has taught lutherie at the electric lutherie school that bears his name.

In the same year he created the Frudua Guitar Craftpedia, a collection of articles on how the electric guitar works, published in three languages.

Citations

Interviews

TV appearances

External links

Source links have been attached directly to the relevant passages wherever the connection was clear.

Born	Albizzate (VA), Italy, 1964
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Luthier, musician, educator, communication specialist and lutherie teacher
Founder of	Frudua Guitar Works