1990 Matthias Dammann SP/CSAR

This 1990 Matthias Dammann is a spruce and CSA rosewood classical guitar with a single, lattice-braced top, from the Russell Cleveland collection and concertized by Virginia Luque.

A Lattice-Braced Single Top

Rather than a sandwich top, this guitar has a single spruce top with thin and lightweight wooden latticed braces under it. The result is a very lightweight top that satisfied players seeking immediate response, enhanced volume and ease of play.

Virginia Luque, Russell and Barrueco

According to Russell Cleveland, this instrument was concertized on several times by Virginia Luque, and was shown to David Russell and Manuel Barrueco (both players of Dammann themselves), who were both “amazed” by it. Cristina Galietto (Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”) and Jonathan Roth play it in the videos above.

From the Russell Cleveland Collection

This guitar comes from the Russell Cleveland collection – one of the last three guitars to leave the Cleveland collection. Apart from a small splice in the extreme lower bout of the top (which may be original construction), it is in excellent, almost pristine condition.

Read more: Orfeo Magazine No. 22 – Gernot Wagner, Pioneer of the Double Top, and the New German Generation – also available in print in the collected edition Orfeo Magazine 21–25:

Orfeo Magazine 21–25 (print edition)

Matthias Dammann and the Double Top

German luthier Matthias Dammann has become a household name in the aficionado community, above all as the most famous exponent of the “sandwich” or double top. In the 1990s he and Gernot Wagner were searching for ways of building guitars with greater volume: Matthias was making tops of two thin wooden skins with thin wooden strips in between, and when Nomex – a light honeycomb material from aircraft building – was discovered, he immediately made a guitar with it in place of the wooden strips.

Barrueco, Russell, York and Tennant

The result is a lightweight top that has been very attractive to hosts of top players in their search for a guitar with immediate response, enhanced volume and ease of play. Manuel Barrueco, David Russell, Andrew York and Scott Tennant are among the many who have performed and recorded on his instruments. He works in Bavaria, where he is still building today.