This guitar was the first commission that I received for a guitar that would be in my Presentation Series. This instrument was to represent La Bella strings and with this in mind I decided that it would be nice to try to capture a certain aesthetic quality associated with the most elaborate efforts of the greatest guitarmakers from Spain's golden era.

   The back and sides are of European Maple. This is not considered a "traditional" wood for the guitar even though it most certainly is. I have found that maple offers great tonal contrast and superb projection. From an aesthetic point of view, the light color of this wood, and it's association with violin family instruments gave me a lot of visual ideas. The top is of European Spruce with an enormous amount of bear claw figure known as Hazelfichte.