Dumitru Manea is a Master Luthier with 41 years of woodworking experience and has been researching, designing and building musical instruments and acoustic guitars for over 22 years. During this period he has continually refined his designs and has now developed his designs to the point where they are accepted as fine musical instruments by both professional and serious amateur musicians alike.

In 1999, Dumitru designed the new line of acoustic guitars,  and also designed and set up the entire production line for Rickenbacker Guitars, one of the oldest guitar companies in the world.  The redesigned acoustic archtop (Jazz-bo) is featured on the cover of the May 2001 issue of Guitar Player magazine.

Dumitru began using the UV (polyester) finishing process in spring 1998. Having become an expert in this type of finishing he introduced it to Rickenbacker in 1999 and set up the entire process for Gallagher Guitars and trained members of their staff in late spring 2001.  This type of finishing process is being used by several well-known guitar manufacturers.

Summer 2003 brought forth another facet of Dumitru’s unique conceptualization abilities when he designed and built the only pick display with a foldable top to hold 30+ models of Fred Kelly Picks. Dumitru started the endeavor by laying concrete to extend the existing shop and ended with the completion of a full production line for Dumitru’s invention. This display can be found at fine music stores around the world.

With Dumitru’s musical training he understands musicians and what they want in a guitar. He is an accomplished designer and draftsman, and has a working knowledge of CAD and CNC manufacturing techniques. Over the years there have been numerous articles and features  about Dumitru and his guitars in both local and national publications.

Given his background growing up in Romania, he is very tenacious with his business and is always focusing his efforts on the technologies of the future as musicians’ needs change.

During a business trip to several countries in Europe Dumitru was waiting for a trolley in Helsinki, Finland when a man approached him and asked for a light for a cigarette.  He told this man that he would be 45 (in July 2006) and have never smoked, never been drunk and have never used drugs.  The man was so surprised by Dumitru’s revelation and the fact that he had never met anyone like him that he started telling everyone on the street what was said.  This affirmation of Dumitru’s character has restored something he thought had been lost - there are still good people in this world and he is one of them!  He returned from his business trip to marry a wonderful lady and is happy to say that he is back in business.  Dumitru once built guitars under the company name Manea Custom Guitars but this company no longer exists.  He has formed a new company called Manea Guitars.

He has designed a total of 126 guitar models.