Chartwell Guitar

2022 Steven Walter lattice #312

Woods: Indian rosewood back and sides. Spanish cedar neck. French polish shellac throughout.

Specs: 650mm scale, 52mm nut, 43mm string spacing at nut, 57mm at saddle. Six hole tie block. Klaus Scheller tuners (not Schaller) with buffalo horn rollers and knobs, raised fingerboard, Visenut active series with padded cover, two sound ports, bolt on neck.  3.5mm string height bass string 12th fret.

Condition: as new

Comment: Steven Walter began his professional guitar career as a performer, receiving his doctorate from Florida State, but soon began constructing classical guitars. As a dealer and fellow vendor at various festivals at southeastern universities, I have seen the progression of his work from traditional builds to this highly sophisticated lattice design. His work has always been a favorite of talented guitar students and he makes himself available at these affairs to provide tune ups and repair work to support the rising crop of talent.

One of the performers at the recent FSU festival was practicing on an identical Walter guitar in my area and I knew before long I had to obtain one. I lucked out because Steven’s wait list is close to two years.

It is hard to over praise the performance of this instrument–it is muscular but with a soft heart. There is a sweetness in the trebles that makes one stop, listen, and admire. All three treble strings are outstanding, especially the G.  Coupled with the enormous power it possesses, I could not imagine a better concert quality guitar. I heard other guitars by the likes of Canin, Connor, Mueller, etc. in the same space, and none topped the Walter. The lattice braces are extremely thin and the top is incredibly alive. A substantially raised fingerboard gives easy access to the frets over the sound board.

In my somewhat limited opinion, this is the finest classical guitar built by an American luthier. As an intermediate level player, I was a better and more inspired guitarist as soon as I picked it up.