2014 Stephan Connor CD/IN

This 2014 Stephan Connor is a cedar and Indian rosewood classical guitar with a traditional fan-braced top, a sound portal and custom Rodgers tuners.

Fan Bracing and a Custom Head

The solid cedar top has five fans and four transverse braces between the lower harmonic bar and the foot. The rosette has mother-of-pearl inlays, maple strips run through the head veneer and down the center of the back, and the custom Rodgers tuners carry Stephan’s head shape at the top. The label reads “Stephan Connor, Constructor, 2014, Boston”.

Sound

With its sound portal, raised fingerboard and 20th fret, it is tremendously powerful and gives the player extra volume. Doris Ćosić plays Nejc Kuhar’s “West Sad Story” on it in the video above.

Stephan Connor and the Sound Portal

American luthier Stephan Connor has specialized in concert classical guitars since 1994. A music graduate of the College of Wooster in Ohio, he learned guitar making at Timeless Instruments in Saskatchewan, worked for many years in Boston – the city on his labels – and now builds in Cataumet on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1993 he drilled a hole in the side of a guitar so the player could hear it better, and the sound portal facing the player has been his signature ever since.

Power with a Traditional Voice

His guitars are sought by players who want maximum power while keeping a natural, traditional quality of sound. Eliot Fisk was the breakthrough artist, and Angel Romero, Sergio and Odair Assad, Scott Tennant, Marco Tamayo, Anabel Montesinos, José María Gallardo and David Tannenbaum are among the many who have played them. He builds both traditional fan-braced and lattice-braced tops, with bracing patterns of his own design.