2019 Annette Stephany CD/AS

A 2019 classical guitar by Annette Stephany, with a cedar top and flamed ash back and sides – our first cedar-top from Annette, and our first guitar from any maker with ash.

In the video above, Fareed Haque and Goran Ivanovic play Haque's "War of the Worlds" on this guitar and Annette's 2019 SP/IN.

Bi-Colored European Ash

The back and sides are bi-colored European flamed ash, which Annette feels makes for a fantastic sounding – and looking – guitar. Rosewood bindings on top and back and a rosewood bridge tie it to the darker cedar top.

Light as a Feather

Built very light, it has a quick, explosive attack and a rich, warm sound with a lot of body, great separation of voices and surprising volume. Pre-owned, with one well-repaired crack in the top, which has been touched up with French polish; it is in excellent condition.

Photos of this guitar being built

Annette Stephany: From Mittenwald to Schweinfurt

Annette Stephany (born 1982) is a German classical guitar maker. She was fascinated by lutherie from the age of 14, when she met a violin maker, and at 21 she enrolled in the violin-making school in Mittenwald, where she also worked for the harp maker Eric Kleinmann. She then apprenticed with Lorenzo Frignani in Modena, Italy, until 2013, with a year of restoration work in Bernhard Kresse's workshop in Cologne, where she later shared a shop with Kresse. Today she has her own workshop in Schweinfurt.

Inspired by Frignani's 1910 Ramírez and 1906 García

Her models follow two historic guitars in Frignani's collection, a 1910 Manuel Ramírez and a 1906 Enrique García, which she studied for years, alongside a design of her own. Her guitars are light and quick to respond, with the natural, earthy warmth of those old instruments and modern clarity and volume.