2018 Mario Aracama SP/AR

This is a beautiful instrument from Mario Aracama featuring lovely materials - an aged European spruce top, perfectly quatersawn with a reddish color. The back & sides are a sober dark set of African rosewood. It has 5 fan struts with a bar underneath the bridge saddle. Fingerboard is ebony, neck is cedar. Tuning machines are the "Luxury Hauser" model with rosewood buttons made by Rubner. Every Aracama guitar has a different and unique aesthetic - Mario enjoys designing rosettes and purfling to complement the visual qualities of the timbers selected for top, back and sides, so that the entire guitar has a unified wholeness unto itself. This guitar is a pleasure to play. It has a friendly responsiveness to it - an immediate but not harsh attack, and a velvety, full quality of sound. It has a lovely palette of timbral colors with the slightest changes in right hand position. Basses are deep, trebles are firm and clear. Playability is very comfortable for both hands. Overall a great guitar for the player seeking a charming, traditional instrument full of Spanish character. Although a used guitar, it is in excellent condition with only some wear in the finish and a hairline crack (repaired with glue only) in one of the sides.