2009 Stephan Connor CD/IN

This 2009 Stephan Connor is a cedar and Indian rosewood classical guitar with spruce lattice bracing and a sound portal, built in Boston.

A Lattice-Braced Cedar Top

A system of spruce lattices supports the cedar top, which is finished in matte oil, while the body is lacquered. The elliptical sound portal in the bass-side rib comes with an optional magnetized rosewood cover, and the raised fingerboard reaches a high C at the 20th fret. The label reads “Stephan Connor, Constructor, 2009, Boston”.

Sound

Tremendously powerful, it is a real player’s instrument for any concert setting, solo or in ensemble. Brian Rodriguez plays Llobet’s “El Testament d’Amèlia” on it in the video above.

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.