1993 Thomas Humphrey "Millennium" SP/CSAR

From the Russell Cleveland collection, this 1993 Thomas Humphrey "Millennium" is a New York classical guitar in spruce and CSA rosewood with striking sapwood, in excellent condition with no repairs.

The Millennium Model

This is a fine example of Humphrey's celebrated "Millennium" design, the model behind the concert careers of Sharon Isbin, the Assads, Eliot Fisk, Ben Verdery and many others. Humphrey re-thought the soundboard bracing for greater transmission of tone and raised the fingerboard for easier playing – a feature he popularized and that several other makers have adopted since.

Sapwood Like a Miguel Rodríguez "Churchdoor"

Its sound has the trademark Humphrey quality – a powerful, "hollow", very focused tone – that makes these 1993 instruments so well suited to the concert hall, where added projection is welcome to player and audience alike.

Materials are striking – especially the CSA rosewood on back and sides, which has a generous amount of contrasting sapwood, much like the famed "Churchdoor" guitars of Miguel Rodríguez. Condition is excellent, with no repairs or damage – only very modest signs of wear.

From the Russell Cleveland Collection

This guitar comes from the Russell Cleveland collection and is featured on pages 96–98 of the book "The Classical Guitar – A Complete History".

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.