1980 Thomas Humphrey SP/CSAR

A traditional "pre-Millennium" Humphrey, this 1980 Thomas Humphrey classical guitar has a French-polished spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides, and was built in New York.

A 1980 "pre-Millennium" Classical Guitar

Before the Millennium changed everything, Humphrey built traditional guitars like this one – today called "pre-Millennium" Humphreys, to set them apart from his later instruments (from about the mid-1980s on) with their significant design changes, the raised fingerboard above all.

Sound and Players

The sound is very traditional – warm, colorful and so on – and while Humphrey's later guitars are known for their impressive volume, this one has plenty of sound of its own, enough to rival his later output.

Over the past 4 decades, Humphrey guitars have been in the hands of countless concert artists, including David Starobin, Sharon Isbin, the Assads, Eliot Fisk and many others.

Condition

Condition-wise, it has some old (stable) repairs to the top, including a couple of splices. There was also some intonation work done, as indicated by a splice in the headstock above the nut. Otherwise it is in fine, concert-ready condition.

Thomas Humphrey (1948–2008): Classical Guitar Maker in New York

Thomas Humphrey was born in 1948 in Minnesota. Around 1970 he moved to New York City, where he apprenticed with the guitar maker Michael Gurian, and for many years he built his guitars in an apartment workshop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Tom died in Gardiner, New York, in April 2008.

The Millennium: A Revolution in Classical Guitar Design

In the mid-1980s Tom introduced the design that made his name: the Millennium. With its raised fingerboard and newly conceived soundboard bracing, it changed the way many players – and makers – thought about the classical guitar, and the elevated fingerboard has since been taken up by luthiers all over the world. His earlier, traditional instruments are now known as "pre-Millennium" Humphreys. Humphrey guitars have been the concert instruments of many leading guitarists, among them David Starobin, Sharon Isbin, the Assad brothers and Eliot Fisk.