Carlo Raspagni (14 October 1925 - 30 August 1999 ) was an Italian luthier .He began his career at the end of the Second World War in the workshop of his uncle, Erminio Travi, a builder of mandolins and guitars. He later went to Milan to learn the finer techniques of building guitars. He was hired by Monzino where he worked on the assembly line. After ten years, in 1960 he left to set up his own business and began collaborations with the great luthiers of the time such as Giulietti, Naldi and his teacher Gallinotti.

In 1961 he came second in the "National Competition of the Modern Guitar", organized by ANLAI, the Italian luthier artisan association, behind Nicola De Bonis, a well-known luthier at that time. Giorgio Gaber played Raspagni guitars designed sepecially for him. Luigi Tenco bought a guitar built by Raspagni and then played them for his entire career. Enzo Jannacci , Cochi and Renato , Adriano Celentano , Fabrizio De André, Lino Patruno , Caterina Valente , Tony Renis , Franco Mussida and many others commissioned guitars from Raspagni

Raspagni founded a lutherie school in Vignate, Milan where he taught building of acoustic and classical guitars. In the eighties Raspagni declined the offers of Japanese investors to expand his production, determined to continue building guitars with his own hands  He died on August 30, 1999, at the age of 73, still in full activity, leaving many unfinished guitars - some of his unfinished pieces were later finished by other luthiers.

Source: Carlo Raspagni Wiki article (12 January 2022)