This year (2007) I am celebrating the event of building my 100th instrument by offering two special edition guitars - one with a spruce top, and one with a cedar top. The spruce is completed and offered here for sale. The cedar will be completed this coming fall. If you are interested in owning the cedar and would like some personalized elements to go into the instrument, please contact me. I have selected the materials but have not started the project. The materials used on the instrument pictured here, and on the forthcoming cedar, are from my special ‘stash’, reserved for occasions like this.

A great spruce guitar has a sound that is difficult to describe. This instrument has a complicated, sophisticated sound, with incredible separation when playing counterpoint, making it quite easy to bring out different voices within a piece. The bass is deep, rich and colorful. The trebles are like silk, clear and penetrating. The sound is very quick to come off of the top, and the guitar is exceptionally easy to play with standard action measurements of 4mm and 3mm bass and treble respectively. The neck profile is very comfortable on the treble shoulder, making wide reaches much easier, with less fatigue. Harmonics are clear and bright, with a very wide range of timbre dynamics when moving from playing next to the bridge to up over the higher frets. Remarkable sounding guitar with lots of pure sustain that will continue to improve and mature as it gets played in. The guitar is quite loud and will only get louder.

The back and sides are made of quartersawn Tulipwood (Dalbergia Frutescens), which is the wood of choice in South America for marimba keys, due to its incredible sound qualities. Tulipwood is a true Brazilian Rosewood, and even more rare than Dalbergia Nigra. The set is over 20 years old, and is combined with a beautiful European spruce top that was cut in 1974.

The neck is lightly figured Spanish cedar, the fingerboard is African ebony, jet black, and has a fine curl figure to it. There is a 20th fret for the top two treble strings, making a 'g' and 'c' available. Bridge and head veneer are Brazilian Rosewood. The tie-block surround is mitered bone/purfling design. Tuners are Sloan with black rollers and ebony buttons.

The rosette is my 'Torres Tribute' rope-braid design in mother of pearl inlaid in an ebony ring. The instrument also has sound ports in the upper bout sides that I have been using since 1998, when Robert Ruck and I started putting these ports in Rob’s instruments. They create a nice envelope of sound for the player, without sacrificing projection. All purflings are mitered, as you can see in the detail photo of the bottom of the sides. The spruce top, tulipwood back and sides, and rosewood bindings make for a very striking appearance.

The scale length is 655mm, which is 5 mm more than the standard length. This 5mm is not noticeable in the left hand, and pushes the bridge a little closer to the middle of the lower bout, helping the top function more efficiently. The nut is 53.5mm wide, the neck is 21.5mm thick at the nut and 23.5mm thick at the 10th fret. The case is a TKL double-arch hard shell. The finish is instrument grade lacquer back, sides and neck, and the top is French polished with shellac.

Price: $6500 SOLD