Chartwell Guitar

2023 Dake Traphagen double top

Woods: aged Honduran rosewood back and sides, alpine spruce over cedar double top. There is no nomex or balsa. Dake states this detail is proprietary. Spanish cedar neck, ebony fretboard. French polish shellac throughout.

Specs: 650mm scale, 52mm nut, 42mm string spacing at nut, 58mm at saddle. Just under 4mm string height at 12 fret, bass side. Sound port, Sloane tuners. Knoblach trebles, Savarez basses. Crosstech metro humicase.

Condition:  new

Comment: Yet another astonishing double top from long time Washington State luthier Dake Traphagen. For anyone who might have sampled his work a decade ago, this is a different instrument. Though it has the same signature deep bass element, the trebles are now outstanding. The voice is bright, piercing, loud. The sound port contributes to that last aspect. This is the fifth great double top to come into the shop this past year and they have all been excellent, though this one seems to be the best. Does the spruce produce enhanced clarity and perhaps more pointed projection than the cedar tops? I’d say so indeed. If played against the Canin spruce top in the shop, it would be hard to differentiate, except that I detect more color in Dake’s guitar, which has been what his followers have always appreciated.