Chartwell Guitar

Gutmeier cypress and spruce

Woods: figured clear cypress back and sides, European spruce top, Spanish cedar neck, French polish shellac throughout.  Rosewood fingerboard.

Specs: 650mm scale, 52mm nut, 43mm string spacing at nut, 58mm at saddle. 4mm bass string height at 12th fret with plenty of string break angle if player wishes to lower action. Gator hard shell case.  Savarez 540J hard tension strings.

Condition: new

Comment: Ross Gutmeier has been a leading fixture among American luthiers for many years. Though his double tops have won over performers who need an auditorium level sound, his Santos traditional model has been a favorite of solid top lovers for a decade. This feather light powerhouse follows in that tradition, but with some tweaks. Here is his comment about this particular experiment:

I built it as a basic model to try out an E soundboard/body tuning (vs the usual F) combined with the Torres type bracing layout that has a brace profile I’ve been working on that offers a bit more clarity. I’m trying to stretch the tonal envelope of the traditional guitar a bit. I thought it was successful and it provided some good info.