When I try to write something about the Reynolds Grand Legacy Double-Top, playing it seems so much more satisfying. Seems rather important though if you disregard world events.

I received the guitar and events seemed to conspire to take me in other directions. The closing of the semester, the objective to not be a journalist, sheer exhaustion, a trip to the hospital for an appendectomy and recovery, a trip to Mexico and then another trip to Mexico thwarted my plan to sit and play my anticipated GL.

Whenever I sat and played the GL I absorbed myself into the whole experience of the guitar. It strikes the player on many different levels and with a consistent thought that it is exceptional in every way.

As you see these pictures of the GL please keep in mind that this may be the best guitar I have played in 10 years. There have been others that have been just as good but I can only speak about my requirements. The Gropp I received about the same time as the Reynolds is as good of a guitar but not for me. There is something beyond the sound of this GL that makes me resonate although if it didn't sound so good nothing else would matter about it. It's like love.

The American-ness of the guitar is unquestionable. This is a beautiful leap away from the classical guitar aesthetic that exists in most parts of the old world and here in the "new" world this GL is unmistakably Randy Reynolds.

The striking look of this guitar comes mostly from the rosette, made from Desert Ironwood, which is reminiscent of the American Craft movement at the turn of the 19th century and a bit of Frank Lloyd Wright. It totally abandons the Moorish rosette design as his earlier Spirit Path rosette did and gives us a second look at the possibility of a guitar being uniquely New World. The visionary acoustic port strikes an individual design statement as well.

The North American style rosette has been a fixture of West Coast guitars for at least 25 years. The exotic wood rosette, with disregard for intricate geometric patterns, have been some of my favorite motives but a lot of these kinds of rosettes still play lip service to that overstated geometric complexity in bindings around the central rosette wood. There is no fear in the Reynolds rosette, no lip service to the Moorish arch and generally no pussyfooting.

The headstock is a simple laminate of ebony and has a tuxedo effect to the guitar, along with the Rogers machines, gives it a simple elegance and formal look.

Topping off the guitar is French polish and the understatement of the woods by this finishing makes the guitar glow softly like a Hollywood cinematographer's shot of a lovely actress from the old days of black and white.

The visual presence is large although the guitar is normal sized, fits in a normal case and has a comfortable and medium heavy feel.

It is the most American guitar I have seen to date. Pop the hood of this guitar and there is an obvious borrowing from Aussie luthier Jeremy Locke. Using the Locke radial bracing system under the double top spruce, the guitar sounds incredible. The beautifully aged Brazilian rosewood doesn't hurt matters of sound any. Randy and I both thank Jeremy for his disposition to share.

Every time I set about writing about a guitar, such as this magnificent Reynolds Grand Legacy Double Top, I think of translating a sometimes amorphous "feeling" about my "reaction" to the new instrument into plain words that describe an almost physiological phenomenon.

We have eyes, ears and hands. They represent the three classifications of an assessment of the guitar, look, sound and feel.

Physical beauty would seem to be one thing but there is a functional aspect of this that places this one category into two distinct parts, form and function. In that sense than the stunning acoustic port makes the form and function manifest. It puts more sound into the environment, seems to allow the guitar to breathe which seems to make the top work more efficiently and provides Reynolds to exercise his skill at making functional things individual and beautiful.

The sound of a guitar is multifaceted and will bear the lengthiest and most detailed part of a review. How many aspects of sound can be described?

Volume is something that is easiest described in three; low, medium, loud. To further differentiate two loud guitars then a 1 to 10 system is better used. The Reynolds double top is a 9. A Smallman might be a 10.

The Reynolds GL is loud and will keep going if I raise the action a little. Right now the action is very comfortable and I don't need more volume. It is loud enough to be arresting to the listener.

Clarity is a vague term used to, I think; describe the presence of fundamental pitch. As musicians and guitarists know, a vibrating string produces overtones that translate into the string player's harmonics. These overtones are present with the fundamental pitch in varying ratio. I use carbon fiber strings to lessen the ratio of overtones.

In speaking to other people of the guitar about the characteristic of clarity, I have come to find that the respondent may actually use clarity to describe another aspect of volume.

Some also describe clarity as a function of timbre. Statements like" it is not really loud but it cuts its way to the back of the hall" seems a statement about tone color or presence of higher frequencies in a spruce toped guitar. This seems closer to what I think clarity is.

The GL is clear but nowhere near brittle. It is a firm clarity that this guitar has. This causes a lyrical quality to be present in the guitar that sings in a rich fullness. The sound is definitely spruce.

Width of sound is something one immediately notices about the GL Double-Top. If we speak of width as being the amount of the color or timbre palette, the GL is extremely wide and suffers no absence of any range of color that I have heard on a classical guitar. I would have to say that the GL has the widest collection of colors of any guitar I have tried in a long time.

Every guitar must be taken within context of itself just as a piano would. There are differences between a Bosendorfer and a Steinway that makes it difficult to say one is better sounding than the other. One might prefer a Steinway for Scarlatti while a Bosendorfer might be preferred for Rachmaninov.

With this in mind, the GL does not have the "zing" of lighter built guitars that have a sharper high end. Within context of itself the highs are lustrous.

I would also say that a lighter built guitar would not have the vast power and size in the lower end that the GL has. This end of the GL is enormous and tight, resounding full and rich.

Sustain is ample and to the edge of what you would want. With more sustain it would be a steel string guitar. I find this an important aspect of a classical guitar since we have to imply the voice when it has died out. With the GL there is less implication. A whole note in the upper voice is still there at Andante.

Now that I have had ample time to truly examine the guitar, every note rings with equal sustain. The decay is even and with the Savarez Alliance/Corum strings, there is almost no jump to the overtone and this what I love.

The GL is amazingly easy to play in aspects of action and expression. The perfect balance coupled with the acoustic port makes this guitar easy to hear and therefore a delight to express subtle nuances of soft music. I can express my feelings on this guitar as no other in a while.

The action that came with the guitar was perfect. The scale length is 650MM and it feels so easy to play. The other GL I had from Randy was also an easy guitar to play. I think Randy sets up a guitar better than most.

I could care less about the inside of the guitar except for stability. I wouldn't care if the top was cardboard and the back and sides were devil's food cake as long as stability and sound were present. Randy will talk about under the hood aspects and I will finally say that the Reynolds Grand Legacy Double-Top is a magnificent guitar from an original and potent luthier that continues to develop.

Only Randy knows what his future holds if anyone does know at all. I expect that it will be some time before he can top this guitar for me. I expect to keep this guitar a long time.

Larry asked me to try and illustrate my approach to making his guitar. What were the objectives and how did I control the myriad of variables? This was my response:

"You're going to have to understand my process in developing the Double Top guitar in order for me to answer your question about bracing and it's effect on sound. For me to make rapid progress in my work, I have utilized a matrix approach to change.

To make rapid progress, I've had to turn over my logical/rational side to trusting that I can correlate several new factors concurrent in each guitar and chart a course for modifying those factors on each successive guitar. It's a very dynamic process and does require some luck and ability to take risks. It's not a careful, contemplative approach but it fits my nature and I seem to have some talent for it. To date, I haven't disappointed a client and there have been no guitars that I would be embarrassed to have anyone play.

To be sure, the Double Top technology has required me to accelerate this method to a pace that has been a bit uncomfortable, but it has been necessary. At this point I am confident in what I've discovered and I am in the process of consolidating my work and settling in on a less frenetic effort and concentrating on refinement. I'm still compiling everything in my mind. At least I hope that's what it's been doing at 3 A.M. in the morning when it wakes me up.

Why did I select the radial bracing for you? Well in part, it was because your number came up when I was ready to try it, but also I knew that you have a pretty developed sense of what a Spruce guitar should sound like. Also, my friend Australian luthier Jeremy Locke, claimed that this bracing pattern would result in a "pretty sound", well balanced and with strong trebles. His description of sound as being "pretty" stuck me as unusual...I had never heard anyone put it like that. It seemed to me that since Jeremy is a solid, no nonsense technician who has built a lot of great guitars that I ought to be listening. You can see that this is hardly solid and scientific evidence to risk trying it in a guitar for an important client but it is typical of a half dozen other features tried for the first time in your guitar. Of course Jeremy right now, is probably just shaking his head and muttering something about me having a real grasp of the obvious?

So is your guitar the culminating, defining instrument in the series? Probably not. There are a lot of things I would like to change to get the neck joint/elevated fingerboard structure going so that I have a lot less hand fitting and so I can control the saddle height more precisely. I have at least 3 bracing patterns that work well and a couple of internal structures inside the Double Top soundboard that work. The back bracing seems like a real contributor to treble power and so I'm settling in on the one in your guitar..........and so on. I would just say that I will soon settle the final design and spend the next few years on the refinement of it. What's the old saying? "If we do not change directions, we are apt to arrive at our original destination". That's something I need to listen to."

The Double Top guitar design has been executed for the most part in Cedar where it has excelled. One can listen to live and recorded performances by David Russell and Manuel Barrueco and understand the powerful sonorities at work in their instruments. But for me, I missed the singing character of the Spruce guitar and for all the great sound of the Cedar examples they still sound, like Cedar. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

It happened that I had a series of Brazilian/Euro Spruce guitars coming up on my list and so I set about to refine the Spruce Double Top. At this point and after several guitars, I can safely say that Spruce can retain it's wonderful character in the Double Top format and take it's place along Cedar to once again give the player the same terrible decision: " Cedar or Spruce?"

Practical Talk about Guitar Sound
When I read about descriptions of guitar sound coming from various guitar makers, players and the media, I have to remind myself that they are talking about a guitar and not wine.......and I confess resorting to creative descriptors myself when I become enthusiastic about a good guitar. The sonority of a guitar is complex and interesting, and the words used to describe these sounds can be confusing, especially when luthiers like myself turn to salesmanship.

So what is "my" sound? What I often hear back from my clients is a description of power or loudness; clarity and balance from string to string and an appreciation of playing ease. From my perspective, my recent work features a focused bass that projects it's voice well for contrapuntal effect, a midrange with good separation and trebles that are immediately brilliant, especially in Spruce guitars. I find that these instruments will play in over time to a big mellow sound.

There is the notion expressed by the well-known maker, John Mello that exceptional guitars seldom come when the maker is trying to alter his natural sound to some acoustic profile agreed upon with a client. I agree, and in such cases, I like to select the woods types that would likely yield the clients vision of an ideal tonal palette and then make "my" guitar within those parameters.

Further, there are instruments best suited for certain types of music and playing styles. The obvious example is the Flamenco guitar, yet even within the classical genre there are guitars better suited for the "Spanish" repertoire than the Baroque.

Often over looked is the use intended for the instrument. If you are a concert performer, you may want a powerful guitar with excellent projection and special action needs. If, like me, you play mostly for your own pleasure or for one or two others, then a "warm, intimate" guitar usually associated with Cedar topped instruments may be your preference. Some guitars are better in the recording studio as well.

Each of us come equipped with a set of unique, individually developed databases in our mind that form the basis of quality judgments. According to acoustic researchers, incoming new sounds are compared against that database and judgments are quickly made about "warm", "brilliant" and other descriptors. That is as it should be and it is what makes human interaction with the guitar so fascinating. On more than one occasion I have discovered that a client's descriptors are very different than mine and I have learned to be thorough in these discussions, especially during the ordering process.

My tone objectives are these:
I want my guitars to be loud. Generally, I believe certain of my instruments to be in the range of any available in terms of loudness especially with my Double Tops. Power is the building block of dynamic range......the contrast of loud and soft is not normally associated with the guitar yet it is so needed for its repertoire. Additionally, many of us play out in guitar society meetings or other venues where the environment is hostile to the guitar. An instrument that has more power can be a real ally in these situations.

As a player, I enjoy a guitar that can help me produce a variety of tone color. I want my guitar to have a natural, rich tone and in the last analysis, this sonority is the hallmark of a great guitar. .......and yes, power and quality tone can exist in the same instrument, regardless of what some makers may claim.

Because my guitar design features a longer shape, it yields a very strong fundamental bass. I require this because my second major objective is to produce brilliant trebles. Not bright...brilliant. This means high treble notes with character and sustain. Sustain gives a player the ability to sound a note and slowly bring in vibrato instead of having to "get on" the note right away before it decays. The bass balances out the trebles and the natural effect on the mid-range is therefore beneficial. The result is voice clarity (quality) and balance. I also observe that players like a guitar with good voice separation. I am currently working on refining my ability to control this feature of guitar sound. Separation in a Flamenco guitar is mandatory yet in a classical it is a part of the voice that requires careful development.

My recent work seems to be consistently meeting player objectives and the Double Top guitar is giving me more tools to assure continuing progress.

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