2018 Andy Culpepper SP/CY

This 2018 Andy Culpepper is a classical guitar with a spruce top and cypress back and sides, handmade in Ithaca, New York – Andy's 100th guitar.

Andy Culpepper's 100th Guitar

Number 100 is a milestone for any maker, and Andy marked it with a guitar that crosses styles: the spruce top and cypress back and sides are a pairing usually found on flamencos, yet this is a classical guitar at heart – one that will still give you a flamenco bite if you dig in. Like all his work, it is rooted in traditional Spanish aesthetics and voiced for the modern concert guitarist.

Sound

Big, clear and open, with good separation and enough projection for the concert hall, but also a sweetness that keeps you playing. It never turns boomy, it sustains beautifully, and its overtones stay rich but disciplined. Light in weight, quick to speak, with a strong attack that opens into a full, singing sound. An excellent concert instrument by any standard.

Andy Culpepper: A Player Turned Guitar Maker

Andy Culpepper grew up in a musical family and started to play classical guitar as a teenager, later moving into flamenco – he even studied flamenco in Spain and has since done a good amount of performing: solo, accompanying and for dance. As with many luthiers, Andy's first guitar was an instrument to play on himself, but after showing it around he began getting orders, and so eventually he decided to become a full-time luthier. His guitars are truly a "player's" instrument, very easy to play and responsive to both the left and right hands.

Training with Richard Cogger in Ithaca, New York

Andy's formal studies were done with Richard Cogger, a classical and flamenco guitar maker in Ithaca, New York. Andy shared workspace with him for a couple of years before establishing his own shop in Ithaca, where he continues to work today. He builds both classical and flamenco guitars, and GSI is the only dealer in the USA that carries his instruments. Read our interview with Andy.

Torres and the "Open Bar" Bracing System

Andy believes that the best guitars are still modeled on the designs and ideas of Antonio de Torres (1817–1892), and he admires Torres for his constant experimenting with different ideas. The "open bar" system of top bracing, where the outer fan struts pass through openings in the harmonic bars, is a key design element in Andy's classical guitars. It creates an extremely responsive, clear, even and beautiful tone that can envelop the listener in a kind of "surround sound" – quite an experience to hear, and perfect for any concert hall.

Built by Hand and Voiced "in the White"

Andy prefers 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, the sides are slotted into the heel block and glued to the top with individual glue blocks called tentalones, and 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. The entire guitar is then French polished with shellac, applied completely by hand with the traditional muñeca, or cloth pad.