NGD - Stonebridge G20-CM

[boombox]

I know this won't be around much longer, but just for info's sake, just yesterday, I picked up a used, but excellent condition, 2012-made Stonebridge G20 CM, Stonebridge being the English-speaking branded models made by Furch in the Czech Repbublic, the stone bridge in Prague being the inspiration for the name.

For those who don't know the model, it has a concert-sized body, a 1 3/4" nut, solid cedar top over solid mahogany back and sides with a similar satin finish and trim (ie almost non-existent) to the Martin 15s. There's no case, but a nicely padded gig bag and a card for the warranty, which, interestingly, is transferrable. Timbers aren't AAA pretty - teh bearclaw top on my L32C is definitely the best looking wood of all my guitars, but the build quality is very high - fit and finish not as good as my Collings (couple of fret ends which aren't sharp, but could have been rounded off a fraction more), but still way better than most guitars I've seen in the sub-£1500 bracket, including the big names.

The first of my main reasons for buying the guitar was so I could try a 1 3/4" nut for a prolonged period as my OM is standard 1 11/16" and my Avalon a 44mm, but quite full profile. As some will probably agree, the guitar you buy when you first start playing acoustic (especially as I did after 20+ years of electric playing), may not necessarily be the right guitar for the music you find yourself gravitating towards after a couple of years; no amount of short sessions in a music shop can really answer all the questions. The other main reason was to try a different wood combination - both my current acoustics are spruce/rosewood - recent listening to much more acoustic music really opened my ears to different combinations, especially involving cedar. I'd tried a couple of Stonebridges in the past and was impressed - had my eye on an Antoine Dufour signature model for quite a time until the L32C came up at a good price. So this more "budget", but still solid timbers guitar seemed to be a no lose buy.

Anyway, so how does it sound? Well, on first practice very good - quite woody and while it doesn't chime like my Collings or sing forever like my Avalon - it's a hog body after all - it does sustain pretty well. I tried it in a variety of tunings for a couple of hours - standard, dropped D, DADGAD, open C, CGCFCD etc and it coped well, for an essentially mint condition unplayed-in guitar. For me, it seems to like C tunings more than DADGAD etc. However, it's in standard that it really shines - good mids and highs and a lovely low end thump. Sorry, that should be THUMP - the richness of the bass really surprised me as did the volume - I can only speculate how this sound will change as the guitar opens up. I was hoping for a guitar which would lend itself to strumming and acoustic blues, and combined with the nut width and spacing at the bridge, I think this guitar is going to tick all the boxes.

It's currently strung with Elixirs, which I've not used much - I use D'Addario EXPs on the Collings and D'Addario True Mediums on my Avalon. Can't say what I think of Elixirs yet. I will have to experiment with some different strings to see what suits me best - any suggestions welcome.

[boombox]

Here's a piccy too

[dweezil]

The first of my main reasons for buying the guitar was so I could try a 1 3/4" nut for a prolonged period as my OM is standard 1 11/16" and my Avalon a 44mm, but quite full profile. As some will probably agree, the guitar you buy when you first start playing acoustic (especially as I did after 20+ years of electric playing), may not necessarily be the right guitar for the music you find yourself gravitating towards after a couple of years; no amount of short sessions in a music shop can really answer all the questions. The other main reason was to try a different wood combination

I too had a similar experience. As I play a variety of fingerstyle styles and use different tunings etc it makes it that much harder to know if a particular guitar will do what I require of it. That lead me to buying and selling (probably far too many) guitars by different builders, different wood combinations and different dimensions in the search for guitars that inspired and sound and felt right to me.

It's taken on and off 30 years to find the right nylon for example, but once I tried a Lowden S32J I knew straight away I had found a real contender. I found I played it more and more and really rediscovered my love of nylon string. And that lead me to Avalon and the new build, basically same spec but a larger body.

Nut widths for me is a pretty crucial thing, I've sold many a gorgeous Brook as I simply cannot get my fingers squashed in on a 44mm nut.

As for strings, it's a personal thing, you didn't mention I don't think if this is cedar but I would say the Elixir nanoweb 80/20s would be a better fit than the Elixir nanoweb PBs for example.

ENJOY!