“Carmen,” fresh from Bradley Daniels‘ shop, sings like she’s got something to prove. We were taken aback when we first opened the case and tuned her up: how could so much voice project out of a body this size? Needless to say, Oxwood Handmade is setting the bar pretty high for competition. This multi-scale beauty comes to us with Cocobolo Rosewood back and sides and an Engelmann Spruce top in a curvaceous package teeming with energy.With Gold Evo frets adorning the fan-fret Ebony fingerboard at 25″ on the Low E and 24″ on the high E, Carmen is a shorter overall scale than folks are used to with multi-scale fingerboards, but the impact on the guitar’s tone is palpable. That Low E has a giant, round tone that perfectly complements the shimmers of the high E, and the warm, expressive strings between.Blessed with haunting sustain and excelling at lower tunings, Daniels‘ Carmen feels and plays like a smaller guitar, but sounds like a much bigger instrument. With understated and tasteful appointments like the Wenge rosette and backplate or the magnetic truss rod cover, the guitars from Oxwood Handmade make a powerful, poised statement.