Hot off the bench, this 2016 S16J from Randy Muth is a firecracker beneath your fingertips, offering an expressive voice that never loses its cool and sustain that’ll hang around so long you ought to charge it for rent. Of course, this guitar has a gorgeous set of Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides with dramatic rippling figure, and a European Spruce top (itself delicately bearclaw-figured), so be prepared for that inevitable moment when you find yourself staring, rather than playing, this beauty.
The voice is one smooth operator, with a surgically-precise balance across the strings that really allows your fingerstyle arrangements room to breathe–and this balance is maintained no matter what altered tuning you throw its way. Muth added a soundport to the upper bout, and an arm rest bevel to the lower, for player comfort, and supplied the left hand with a Venetian Cutaway to easily access all of the Ebony-bound fretboard.
One peek through the soundport, and you’ll spy Randy’s “XTF” bracing scheme, a hybrid of Classical and Steel String bracing designs that, in his words, enhances the “expression of the tripole vibration mode typically found in nylong string guitars…[which] helps provide power to the trebles and higher harmonics.” Wrapped up in an Ameritage hardshell case, this S16J is poised to take over your collection–care to give it a go?
I'm impressed by the clarity of the voice, and the balanced sustain of the upper and middle registers. There are some sweet overtones in the treble strings that I kept circling back to which really fleshed out the tone. 
Nice, full bass response and beautiful woods make this guitar a great pick for both strummers and pickers. The shape is different, yet very pleasing to the eye, and that's a hard thing to achieve when designing an acoustic guitar. | Scale Length | 24.88 in |
|---|---|
| Nut Width | 1.75 in |
| String Spacing | 2.19 in |
| Woods | Spruce - European, Rosewood - Brazilian |
Hot off the bench, this 2016 S16J from Randy Muth is a firecracker beneath your fingertips, offering an expressive voice that never loses its cool and sustain that'll hang around so long you ought to charge it for rent. Of course, this guitar has a gorgeous set of Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides with dramatic rippling figure, and a European Spruce top (itself delicately bearclaw-figured), so be prepared for that inevitable moment when you find yourself staring, rather than playing, this beauty.The voice is one smooth operator, with a surgically-precise balance across the strings that really allows your fingerstyle arrangements room to breathe--and this balance is maintained no matter what altered tuning you throw its way
I'm impressed by the clarity of the voice, and the balanced sustain of the upper and middle registers. There are some sweet overtones in the treble strings that I kept circling back to which really fleshed out the tone.
Nice, full bass response and beautiful woods make this guitar a great pick for both strummers and pickers. The shape is different, yet very pleasing to the eye, and that's a hard thing to achieve when designing an acoustic guitar. 