Tall, dark, and handsome. Our latest Ryan comes to us from 2007, and it’s blossomed handsomely in the intervening years. African Blackwood back and sides with an Engelmann Spruce top & arm bevel, this Nightingale Grand Soloist has an extremely smooth response from nut to saddle, and plays even more smoothly. The setup is glass; this Ryan almost plays itself. We found this one soaked up DADGAD particularly well, where the bass strings sweetened up without turning muddy. In excellent condition, and comes bundled with a McIntyre Feather pickup for onstage work, and a Calton flight case to safely deliver this Ryan to that stage. Kevin manages to coax a lot of color out of his guitars when voicing them, and that’s here with this Nightingale in spades, which dovetails nicely with the string-to-string balance for a rich, fat tone.
Other keywords: lutherie, luthier, kevin ryan, fingerstyle, grand auditorium, black wood