2017 Stephan Connor "640" SP/AR

This 2017 Stephan Connor “640” is a spruce and African rosewood lattice-braced classical guitar with a 640 mm scale and his signature sound portal.

Lattice Bracing and the Sound Portal

A system of lattices supports the solid bear-claw spruce top, and an elliptical sound portal in the bass-side rib sends more sound to the player while shaping the sound projected to the audience; a magnetic cover lets the player open or close it. The raised fingerboard has 20 frets, up to a high C. The label is signed and dated 2017.

Sound and Condition

It is tremendously powerful – a real player’s instrument with no problem in any concert setting, solo or in ensemble – and beautifully figured African rosewood completes it. Juan Carlos Arancibia Navarro (Paganini) and Alan Mearns (Bach) play it in the videos above. Condition was excellent, with no damage or repairs and only playing wear from regular use.

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.