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To celebrate his anniversary Dermot McIlroy combined figured Bubinga (African Rosewood) and Cedar for a glorious sound. Big, rich tone with power to spare. Don’t let the elegant lines fool you, this is a beast with excellent projection and clarity and just enough overtones and sparkle to give it color.

Here we have a rare 12 fret Traugott Model R. With the bridge in the “sweet spot”, the increased response is noticeable right away. This is a very well cared for ten year old Traugott that is fully mature and speaking. Jeff’s trademark clarity and separation are evident here and the overall voice is intimate and makes this an excellent recording guitar or everyday musical partner.

Here is a very early JOMC from Dana featuring a picture perfect wide grain Sitka top and a wide fingerboard. There is nothing like a fully mature spruce top for power and clarity and this one is wide open. The JOMC design is one of the more versatile for players who like to mix dreadnought bass with singing trebles for fingerpicking or strumming.

Ralph Bown is an English builder with clients such as John Renbourn, Martin Simpson and Clive Carroll. This beautiful instrument is Ziricote and Spruce for amazing drive and power. It’s always amazing to us just how much tone Ralph can coax from mere wood. In addition to the tone this one is beautiful ornate with 45 style abalone, inlaid headstock, fingerboard, bridge and pickguard. A rare gem, at once inspirational, playable and collectible.

Straight from the bench to the 2017 Artisan Guitar Show, then onto Dream Guitars to kick start one of our newest builder relationships–we’ve got our first R.1 from luthier Tyler Robbins! Tyler’s approach marries a fresh, tasteful aesthetic with a pianistic voicing that fingerstylists everywhere will appreciate. This R.1 has a medium-sized body with a 15 7/8″ lower bout and a slightly shallow C profile neck with a glass-smooth playability, which makes for an instrument which is easy on the hands and doesn’t scrimp on projection or sustain.

Robbins picked a dark set of Indian Rosewood for the back and sides (and inlaid the headstock and rosette to match) and paired it with a creamy, tight-grained Engelmann Spruce top for the smooth string-to-string balance that characterizes the R.1’s voice. A 13-fret neck ratchets up the sweetness a pinch, and dropping into DADGAD and beyond that sweetness remained intact, even bloomed. We’re excited to offer this gem for the first time here! We’ll have a blog post coming out soon where Tyler answers some questions about his build process and aesthetics, so be sure to check our blog to keep up.

Other keywords: lutherie, inlay, luthier, guidry, galloup, resin, fingerstyyle, gotoh, exclusive

If we could play guitars as fine as this 2007 Applegate SJ all day, it wouldn’t be called work. Brian bedecked this SJ with all the bells and whistles: Florentine Cutaway, Koa bindings and arm bevel, African Blackwood back and sides, European Spruce top, and the piéce de resistance, a lute-style soundport in the upper bout! Applegate voiced this SJ with a fingerstylist in mind; listen and you can hear each string ring clean and distinct, and the African Blackwood lends a cavernous, haunting quality to the bass response.

These trebles ought to come with their own nutrition fact sheet; they’re that fat and juicy. Playability is breezy and glass-smooth, perfect for swift and efficient left hand work, and this Applegate handles lowered tunings like it was made for it (which is actually the case). Kept in superb condition, this 2007 SJ has opened up sweetly, and is ready to make music for many more years to come.