Chartwell Guitar

Turkowiak Bolivian rosewood and Tyrolean spruce double top

Woods: Bolivian rosewood back and sides, Tyrolean spruce double top.  Matte  polyurethane oil finish.  This finish is both durable, making nicks and marks over time be almost invisible, as well as moisture proof. Perspiration will not mar the finish as with shellac.

Specs:  650mm scale, 52mm nut, 43mm string spacing at nut, 58mm at saddle. Bass string height at 12th fret is just under 4mm, with lots of saddle for future adjustment if desired. 12 hole tie block,  raised fingerboard, custom hard shell case. Offset sound hole.

Condition: new

Comment:  Turkowiak guitars are virtually identical from one to the next, though there is a difference in voice between the spruce and cedar tops.  The reason Rafal Turkowiak feels the offset sound hole model is his best is because of the remarkably low bass resonance, its overall power (immense), and the marriage of distinctive mids and trebles–it is not a bass dominant guitar, despite having a low range that is beyond any instrument I’ve heard or played.

Turkowiak guitars  are very easy to play–nimble and responsive, with endless sustain. This model is his studio guitar, and the lower price is due to economizing on items not central to its performance, such as a high gloss finish, no armrest, no hollow neck with sound ports, and choice of tuners. My preference for his work is simply for the way it sounds and performs. He has hit a sweet spot for me and others who are discovering his work, and the studio model makes this and others in that class an enormous bargain.

The director of a major guitar studies university program declared after buying one “I just love that guitar!”  Sometimes we need not list the particular aspects of a favored guitar; it is intuitive and subjective.