| Seventeen inch guitars should sound bigger and
louder than sixteen inch ones ... right? Well if that is the case,
why don't ALL guitars have seventeen, or even eighteen inch lower
bouts? The answer is ... it takes a really skilled luthier to turn
that extra surface area of the top and the extra internal air volume into
something that isn't just a boom box!
I can think of quite a few examples of 17" guitars
that fall quite short of my expectations ... instruments with soggy attack
transients, nasal midrange qualities and, well, NO treble register
to speak of. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a major
manufacturer who has a strong selling seventeen inch model! I guess
this is why when I finally play a "big" guitar that actually sounds big,
it is all the more gratifying.
With people like Keith Richards, Charlie
Hunter, Pat Martino (and soon, Pierre Bensusan) playing Greenfield
guitars, I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise that Michael is one
of the rare luthiers that can really execute a truly spectacular 17" guitar.
That being said, even I was not prepared for the sound coming out
of this luscious looking instrument! |
