Well, I spent a couple of hours with Greg yesterday before bringing this guitar home. He’ll tell you that I took fully 30 minutes to look at it, beginning with scrutiny and savoring of very small areas before moving finally to the neck and binding and headstock. Then another while before those first sounds, for this guitar as always for me the Cmaj7/Fmaj7 of Paul Simon’s “Old Friends” (seems like the thing to do).

Here barely 24 hours and five or so playing later, speechless, I am. But I’ll try:

1. Tight joints, almost flawless finish, and even prettier in person than in these pictures. Top 95% of guitars I’ve owned or played (including some good ones) in aesthetics, and better than that in fit. Bravo, Greg.

2. Set-up and playability is spot on. The action is low, which works very well for the mostly fingerpicking I do, but even when hit hard with a pick there is no evidence of buzz in any positions up or down the neck. Intonation as perfect as it could be. The neck is fast and easy.

3. TONE. TONE. TONE!
a. It has been my experience with even very good guitars that there is usually a trade-off between macro and microdynamics, between whether a top is a fast or slow spiker, between responsiveness and headroom. Not this guitar. It just SINGS with fingers, and when flatpicked or strummed this guitar is loud and has all kinds of body and presence. I played a bit capo’ed up on the fifth and even the seventh and it retains these characters. Wow.
b. Balance. The low E string is about as close to a note on the 7′ grand that my son plays in our living room as it could be…that rare combination of fundamental and harmonics that makes for a very strong and rich sound. And the other strings are similarly present…the top e is the least bit bright, I’m thinking in part due to the newness of the guitar (3 days with strings!) and the phosphor/bronze strings on it, but is not at all tinny, even up in frets 14-15-16. Fretted notes sound remarkably close to open notes in timbre and character. Wow.
c. Sustain. Greg mentioned in the building phase a typical trade-off between sustain and bass and other things, but this guitar seems to have defied those principles. LONG sustain, but great note separation and quality.

It’s a marvelous, marvelous guitar, built with all the smarts and passion and commitment that a very smart and passionate and dedicated man could bring. Thank you so very much for your fine work, Greg…

MK

Friends,

As someone with great reverence and fondness for music, for guitars, and for artists who do their work with passion and intelligence and commitment to excellence, I would like to recommend to you Greg Gwaltney and his work. Over the 35 years that I have been playing I have been fortunate enough to own some very fine guitars by some of the very best small-shop and luthiers building in this “golden age” of lutherie. Each one has been a gift, and each has blessed me with music and joy. But “Taz” has been something special.

I made Greg’s acquaintance a couple of years ago via some internet guitar communities, and when I found out that he lived a short couple of hours away I made it a point to visit him in his home. It was not surprising to me that Greg is a person of character and clarity, and when I played one of his earlier guitars I knew immediately that I wanted to ask him to build one for me. As together we picked the woods, the finest and most lively Tasmanian Blackwood and the brightest and strongest Lutz spruce and the most interesting bloodwood and mahogany and ebony and koa, I sensed Greg’s perfectionism, and knew that I had made a very good choice in entrusting him to do his work…and do it he did. This guitar is just as lovely to play as it is to look at, and it has been a gift, indeed.

I assure you that should you undertake a collaborative guitar-building endeavor with Greg that it will be a joyous and enjoyable process from beginning to end. I hope that Taz will be part of my life for many years to come.

Mark Kunkel