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#215 is the first guitar that displays my trademark Colorado mountain rosette. This design is unique to my guitars and uses colors and design not normally seen on classical/flamenco guitars. The very blond aesthetic of this instrument suggests a flamenco heritage, and indeed some aspects of#215 are inspired by a guitar built in 1951 by Marcelo Barbero for Carlos Montoya and was used by Sabicas on his early New York recordings. The scale is 660mm.

Materials used for #215 :

Soundboard - German Spruce
Back/Sides - Nootka Cypress
Neck - Spanish Cedar
Fretboard - Gabon Ebony
Bridge - Black & White Ebony
Binding - Yellowheart
Strings - Savarez 570CR
Weight - 1259 grams

The back and sides are made from Nootka Cypress, a wood that has confused botanists for a long time. It is usually sold under the misleading trade name of Yellow Cedar. The wood has been used by the Nootka people of British Columbia for boats, Totem poles and numerous other items for thousands of years. It is an extremely stable wood with a creamy translucent consistency. It tends to be heavier than most Spruces used in instrument making and can be very flexible across the grain. It has been called "Chimey" when used as a soundboard on Steel string guitars, an effect that can also be heard on this guitar, even though it is not used for the soundboard. In my opinion, this a great guitar for performing the Concierto de Aranjuez.

When building this guitar, the very blond color of the body woods inspired me to enhance that with the use of Yellowheart for the binding. I purposely did not add any purfling to the sides, to enhance the blond effect. I was tempted to use Black & White ebony for the fretboard as well, but resisted the urge. Due to the color, most guitarists feel they must play flamenco style music on this guitar, and it certainly is suited to that, but the action has been set a little high for flamenco and a little low for classical. I have greatly enjoyed using it for other styles, from classical to jazz, and believe it is a great all around instrument. Having said that, the following videos show two excellent local musicians performing flamenco pieces with this guitar. Special thanks to Ken Thompson for the video production and to Brint and Jasco for permission to feature their performances here. Extra special thanks to Alfredo Muro for his audio performances on this guitar as well. Turn on the good speakers, you'll find it worth it !

Jasco playing #215 (video)

Brint Lukens playing #215 (video)

Alfredo Muro playing #215 (Gente Humilde)

Alfredo Muro playing #215 (Bachianinha7)

Alfredo Muro  playing #215 (Tientos)

Based on this guitar, It would be difficult to argue Black & White ebony isn't a good sounding bridge wood.