2012 Andy Culpepper "Coral" SP/PD
Year | 2012 |
Top | Spruce |
Back & Sides | Padauk |
Scale Length | 653 mm |
Nut width | 53 mm |
Finish | French Polish |
Country | USA |
Condition | Excellent |
Exchange | ExchangePlus |
Luthier | Andy Culpepper |
$4,500.00
Andy Culpepper is one of our favorite young American luthiers, building both flamenco and classical instruments that we have sold to many happy clients. For the body of this excellent 'negra' he uses padauk, or "coral" as the Spanish luthiers call it - and many of the all-time great flamenco luthiers like Reyes, Arcangel and Barba have used this wood with success. It's hard and dense like rosewood, but brighter sounding, and therefore makes a superb flamenco guitar that mixes the attack of a blanca with the body of a negra. The color of the wood is quite bright when first cut, which is perhaps the only reason it's not used more often, but ages to a beautiful deep vermillion as it has done in this guitar. It comes from the early epoch of Andy's work, but already shows the great talent we've come to appreciate in his instruments. Very loud, projecting and flamenco-sounding, bright, snappy and easy to play. An excellent value from a maker whose reputation continues to grow.
Andy Culpepper is one of our favorite young American luthiers, building both flamenco and classical instruments that we have sold to many happy clients. For the body of this excellent 'negra' he uses padauk, or "coral" as the Spanish luthiers call it - and many of the all-time great flamenco luthiers like Reyes, Arcangel and Barba have used this wood with success. It's hard and dense like rosewood, but brighter sounding, and therefore makes a superb flamenco guitar that mixes the attack of a blanca with the body of a negra. The color of the wood is quite bright when first cut, which is perhaps the only reason it's not used more often, but ages to a beautiful deep vermillion as it has done in this guitar. It comes from the early epoch of Andy's work, but already shows the great talent we've come to appreciate in his instruments. Very loud, projecting and flamenco-sounding, bright, snappy and easy to play. An excellent value from a maker whose reputation continues to grow.

Andy Culpepper is a very talented US luthier who builds an exceptionally well-made instrument, firmly rooted in the traditional Spanish style.
Prior to building, Andy started to play classical guitar as a teenager, and later transitioned into flamenco - he even studied flamenco in Spain and has since done a good amount of performing - solo, accompanying and dance. As with many luthiers, Andy's first guitar was to build himself an instrument to play on but after showing the guitar around, he began getting orders, and so eventually decided to become a full-time luthier. His formal studies were done with Richard Cogger, a classical and flamenco guitar maker in Ithaca. Andy shared work space with him for a couple of years before establishing his own shop where he continues to work today. So his guitars are truly a "players" instrument, very easy to play and responsive to both the left and right hands.
Andy believes that the best guitars are still modeled on the designs and ideas of Antonio de Torres (1817-1892) and admires him for his constant experimenting with different ideas. Andy prefers also to work in a traditional manner - very few power tools, and as much by hand as possible to achieve the maximum amount of control over the quality of his work. His guitars are assembled by first joining the neck to the top to precisely establish the center line of the guitar. This assembly is placed face down on a solera, or workboard, and the sides are slotted into the heel block, and glued to the top with individual glue blocks called tentalones. Finally the back is fitted and the box is closed. The bridge is glued on before finishing, because Andy likes to play all of his guitars "in the white" and refine the voice by sanding the top if necessary. Finally, the entire guitar is finished in French polish of shellac, applied completely by hand with the traditional muñeca, or cloth pad.
Feel free to contact us with any questions. It’s what we’re here for!