2024 Andy Culpepper SP/CSAR

This 2024 Andy Culpepper is a classical guitar with a spruce top and CSA rosewood back and sides with "3D" quilted figure, handmade in Ithaca, New York.

Quilted CSA Rosewood

Materials are gorgeous, including a beautiful set of CSA rosewood with "3D quilting" throughout the sides and back, matched with a spruce soundboard. Like all of Andy's guitars, it is rooted in traditional Spanish aesthetics.

Sound

Here is a guitar for the concert stage: plenty of power, clarity and openness, with the separation to carry in a hall – yet its voice is so beautiful that it's hard to put down. It is loud and penetrating, never boomy, and its sustain is great, with a rich but controlled overtone content. It's versatile too: a classical by design, it can sound like a flamenco when pushed. It feels light in the hands and every note starts with a big, explosive attack that blooms into rich overtones. An excellent and well-made concert instrument by any standard.

Photos of this guitar being built

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.