Noemi

Noemi Acoustic Guitars — From Sicily to Susegana, Built One at a Time

Noemi Schembri began playing guitar at eleven in Sicily, and her fascination with the instrument shifted almost immediately from playing it to understanding how it worked. Wood became the obsession. She earned a degree in industrial wood technologies at the University of Padua in 2006, spending years studying the science of the material before ever putting chisel to spruce. After closely studying instruments at guitar festivals across Europe, she built her first guitar in a Michele Della Giustina workshop in 2010, then moved to Canada to study under renowned master luthier Sergei de Jonge, whose influence on her understanding of guitar dynamics and tonal balance has never left her. She returned to northern Italy in 2011, opened her first workshop in Solighetto, and relocated to a larger space in Susegana in 2021, where she builds every instrument herself, from wood selection through to final setup, entirely by hand.

Her instruments have earned rave reviews for their beauty, distinctive designs, tone, volume, and versatility. The players who have found her describe the experience in consistently superlative terms, with one player on the Acoustic Guitar forum calling her instruments their favorite among all the luthier-built guitars they have played, praising the playability, responsiveness, and tone as unmatched, and describing Noemi herself as a truly wonderful person.

The Philosophy

Noemi builds guitars that evoke emotions and create immediate connections with the player, instruments so comfortable and responsive that you cannot stop playing them. She considers guitars as work tools first, which means every decision, from the wood selection through to the ergonomics and setup, is made in service of the player's experience rather than the builder's ego. Each instrument takes three to four months to complete and is built entirely around the specific needs of the person who commissioned it: desired sound, wood choice, ergonomics, playability, and aesthetics all discussed and agreed upon before a single piece of wood is cut.

She also plays an important role in the wider international lutherie community, translating the workshop courses of veteran builders including Roy McAlister and Jean Larrivee, and appearing on Michael Bashkin's Luthier on Luthier podcast, where she shared her approach to model design, topwood selection, and the visual philosophy behind her instruments.

The Models

OM and OMC — The model most widely associated with the Noemi name, and the one that has appeared most frequently at Dream Guitars, Eddie's Guitars, and other respected boutique dealers. Small dimensions with extreme versatility, equally at home in fingerstyle, flatpicked bluegrass, and songwriting accompaniment, and consistently expressive in both standard and DADGAD tuning. Dream Guitars described a recent bubinga and cedar example as so crisp and energetic, packing a strong and expressive voice out of a slender 12-fret neck in a way that makes you want to unplug and spend the afternoon playing. Available in 12 and 14-fret configurations, standard and cutaway.

The Wedge — Noemi's original body design and the model that most clearly expresses her individual building identity. A tapered small jumbo with a Manzer Wedge profile, available in Venetian cutaway, with Italian spruce tops, exotic ebony or sapele mahogany back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, Gotoh 510 tuners with ebonoid buttons, and French polish finish throughout. The Guitar Gallery described it as possessing a warm, full, symphonic voice that is impossible to put down.

All models are available in a wide range of tonewood combinations including Italian spruce, European spruce, and Western Red Cedar tops over Indian rosewood, Madagascar rosewood, sapele mahogany, bubinga, and exotic ebony back and sides. Every instrument is a custom commission, and no two are alike.

Browse our available Noemi inventory, and reach out to discuss a custom commission directly.