Stanford Performer and Stanford Monterey 56 Stanford Performer and Stanford Monterey Stanford Performer and Stanford Monterey ‘Czech’ out this brace of Stanfords and see how much entertainment Sam Wise, our reviewer, ‘Goetz’ from playing them both. tanford was founded after the 1990 meeting of Czech master luthier Frantisek Furch and German guitarist and designer Toni Goetz. In those heady days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, possibilities for business were opening up which simply had not existed during the Cold War, and Furch and Goetz decided to work together, marrying traditional craftsmanship with modern manufacturing techniques to produce some fine instruments. Today, operating out of Germany, Stanford produce dreadnought, OM and F-style flat tops, beautiful archtops and a huge S range of mandolins, all produced in apparently limitless levels of trim and wood combinations, and at a wide variety of price points! For this review, we’ve got one of the lower-end Stanfords, a Monterey 200, and one of their higher-end flat tops, the Performer PS28. Let’s start with the Monterey, at £299 smack in the middle of perhaps the most competitive price point in the acoustic guitar market! The Monterey guitars are approximately OM sized, with a cutaway and, in this case, a Fishman Classic 4 pickup. The top is solid Sitka spruce although, by the looks of it, not of the very highest quality; it’s two piece, and has rather uneven graining, much finer near the centre than at the sides. The soundhole is quite attractively and subtly decorated, with a single abalone ring and then a very thin pinstripe ring within that. The bridge is a simply designed rosewood affair, with an uncompensated bone saddle and with plain, white, plastic bridge pins. The top is bound in what appears to be tortoiseshell plastic, which is somewhat incongruous given the rather understated nature of the looks. Back and sides on the Monterey models are laminated, mahogany on this model, and the well executed although without the really impressive touches you might find on a higher-end guitar, but absolutely good enough at this price point. The overall appearance is slightly confused; from a distance it looks simple and understated, but as you look close and turn it, details like the gold tuners, the tortoiseshell binding and the rich, glossy back make it begin to look showy. The effect is actually quite pleasing, if a little schizophrenic, and I wouldn’t feel ashamed to be caught on stage playing the Monterey. That’s probably a good thing, since the Monterey seems intended as a “The quality is fine if not outstanding, well executed although without the really impressive touches you might find on a higher-end guitar...” two-piece back is actually very attractive, very rich looking, with a white centre stripe. The neck is solid mahogany, topped with an unbound rosewood fingerboard, which features only very tiny dot position markers on the front, and clearer ones on the side of the board. The fret job is reasonable, with medium-sized frets, but they’re not as well dressed as I’d have liked, with some roughness evident. It’s topped with an almost baroque-looking headstock, goldplated tuners with ivoroid buttons which are very smooth in use, and Stanford’s logo inlaid in abalone. The quality is fine if not outstanding, stage guitar; with its cutaway and on-board pickup, it begs to be taken out to open mic nights and would probably do a very good job. The guitar feels very comfortable in the hands, slimmer and smaller than a dreadnought, with quite a skinny neck, though I didn’t find this had a detrimental effect on its playability. Sound-wise, the Monterey is rather anonymous; whilst there is nothing offensive whatsoever in its tone, there’s nothing that really stands out either. It doesn’t have the powerful, punchy bass you’d expect from a dreadnought, though I did occasionally find the bass a little boomy when fretting 57 Stanford Performer and Stanford Monterey Monterey Model: MSGC-200C Price: £249.00 plus additional pick-up options Manufacturer: Stanford Built in: China Body Size: Grand Concert Woods used: Top: Solid Spruce Back & sides: Mahogany Neck: Mahogany Fingerboard: Rosewood Frets (No. & size): 20 Medium Tuners: Gold “Gotoh” Copy Nut Width & Scale Length: nut width 43mm scale 647mm Strings Fitted (Gauge & Brand) D’Addario EXP .012 Onboard Electronics: Optional Left handers? Yes + 5% Gig Bag/Case Included: Tribal Planet Paded Gig Bag Both guitars feature classy finishing with their respective machineheads the high strings up near the 10th fret. The high end is fairly sweet and glassy, and does manage to avoid the over-trebly sound that can affect some low-end spruce guitars, but it doesn’t have any particular character to it. The mid range, however, is more pleasing, with a richness and resonance to it which engage the ear. It’s a very easy guitar to play, well set up, with a light action, and it makes you feel instantly at home. The tone is well balanced right across the neck and I didn’t find any problems, no matter what I played. It responded to strumming with a good, clear sound, never overwhelming, but job for you, this Monterey will fit the bill. It’s not the most characterful of guitars, but when you’ve got a gig to do and only one guitar, sometimes quirks and character are not what you want. Anyone looking for a good performance guitar at this price is unlikely to be disappointed, but there’s so much choice out there that it’s worth playing lots of guitars before you choose. The Performer, however, is a quite different animal. There’s one word for this guitar, and it’s ‘flash’! It’s an acoustic-only dreadnought, and it looks like Stanford have taken that guitar’s country roots to heart into ‘flash’. The sides and back are beautifully grained, with the sides bound both front and back, and the back separated by a lovely zigzag-patterned centre strip. The mahogany neck is also very rich looking, and the guitar in fact looks stunning from the back; better, in my opinion, than the front. The Performer has an even simpler rosewood bridge, but this time with a compensated bone saddle and mother-of-pearl dots on the plastic bridge pins. The fingerboard is a lovely piece of ebony, ivoroid bound, with slotted diamond position markers, plus position dots on the binding. The frets are slightly thinner than those on the Monterey and again the dressing is not perfect, with some sharpness evident. The headstock is a classic, simple affair, with open-backed nickel-plated tuners with kidneyshaped buttons and, once again, the Stanford logo. The more I look at this guitar, the more I see what could be a gorgeous guitar that’s been rather spoiled by the outrageous pickguard. If I close my eyes to that, it’s classy, luxurious, and striking, and ‘flash’ with it. There’s no other word for it; it’s quite simply rhinestone cowboy all the way. Some people find dreadnoughts uncomfortable but, at six foot three, I’m a big guy and find I can play one on my knee without the need to dislocate my shoulder. The Performer felt natural in my hands, possibly because my everyday guitar is a dreadnought too, and the neck is a little chunkier than the Monterey’s without quite getting that vintage feel. I found the overall feel very welcoming; the action is once again near perfect, and the guitar felt instantly alive in my hands. Sound-wise, it’s a real contrast to the unremarkable competence of the Monterey; the Performer is a really resonant, Contact Details Acoustica Ltd Tel: 01274 855432 www.stanfordguitars.co.uk What we think Plus: At £299 with electrics, this is a good package, more than good enough for semi-pro gigging. Faultlessly set up, very comfortable. Cons: The neck was a little too thin for me. A very competent guitar, but there’s really nothing that grabs you that hard. Overall: A high performance instrument within a most competitive price bracket. ACOUSTIC RATING OUT OF FIVE “It’s a very easy guitar to play, well set up, with a light action, and it makes you feel instantly at home. The tone is well balanced right across the neck and I didn’t find any problems, no matter what I played” with a reasonably solid ‘chuck’ available when you damp the strings near the bridge. Picking is fine too, particularly if you exploit the nice rich mid range; anything with long ringing open D or G strings is going to sound good on this guitar. The Fishman Classic 4 pickup system, with an under-saddle pickup, has an active preamp, a volume control, 3-band EQ and a brilliance control. Fishman really don’t make any bad pickups and this is no exception, producing a fairly faithful impression of the Monterey’s acoustic sound, without much sign of feedback. Overall, I found it hard to criticise the guitar too much; for £299 it’s a very competent instrument. If you’re looking for a nice all-round guitar, which sounds good on your lap on the sofa and yet can be relied on to plug into any sound system, in any smoky pub, and still do a good when designing this one. The PS28 is the top of the Performer range, and it has a solid Sitka spruce top, with solid Indian rosewood back and sides, as you might expect at the much higher price point. The top looks to be of a much better quality spruce than the Monterey, with very even graining and some nice hints of colouration, but you really don’t tend to notice the wood, due to the generously applied decoration! The soundhole has, once more, a single abalone ring, but this time it’s immediately surrounded by white rings, and there are supplementary pinstriped rings both inside and out. There’s also a very nice herringbone purfling bordering the top, which is then bound in white ivoroid, but it’s really the tortoiseshell pickguard (Stanford call it ‘Dalmatian style’) that pushes the guitar from ‘luxuriously decorated’ right over Acoustic Ratings Exceptional Excellent Good Average Poor 58 Stanford Performer and Stanford Monterey characterful guitar. It brings home just what a difference solid back and sides can make to the tone of a guitar, introducing lots of rich, complex harmonics all over the frequency range. The first thing to understand about the Performer is that it’s loud, really loud. You don’t want to be playing this guitar downstairs while the family is asleep, but boy will it cut through the noise if you play it at a party! The bass is quite dominant, as you’d expect from a dreadnought, but rather than overwhelming I’d describe it as punchy. Played softly, the bass register is rich and warm, but as you start to play harder, rather than becoming boomy it far above the 12th fret as you can go, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use this guitar for fingerstyle, despite its apparent unsuitability. But, of course, it’s strumming where the Performer really makes its mark, and not just with the loud, powerful chug we know dreadnoughts for. Because there’s so much of everything available, you have to play the Performer very dynamically to get the best out of it and, when you do, it rewards you enormously. I found it really easy to move from stroking subtle, almost keening, trebly sounds out of it on the verse of a song, to really banging away on the chorus, proving that an acoustic can rock and roll. To compare their sound in automotive terms, the Monterey is like the family car. It’s reliable and forgiving; you can treat it pretty much how you want and still do quite well. The Performer, on the other hand, is more like an Italian exotic; there are bags of everything, meaning that you have more potential to get out of shape if you’re not careful but, if you learn how to exploit it, the performance you can get is incomparable to the Monterey. I would be proud to own and play this guitar, if it were not for one thing – that appalling scratch guard. As good as the Performer is, and it’s very good, I don’t know if I could bring myself to live with the ghastly apparition of tortoiseshell plastic every time I looked at my guitar wall, and that’s a shame. Sam Wise Performer Model: PSD28 Price: £659.95 Manufacturer: Stanford Built in: China Body Size: Dreadnought Woods used: Top: Sitka Spruce Back & sides: Solid Rosewood Neck: Mahogany Fingerboard: Ebony Frets (No. & size): xxxx Tuners: xxxx Nut Width & Scale Length: nut width 45mm, scale 647mm Strings Fitted (Gauge & Brand) D’Addario EXP .012 Onboard Electronics: Optional Left handers? No Gig Bag/Case Included: Tribal Planet Padded Gig Bag What we think Pros: Rich, engaging and involving. Attractive, fabulous sounding; a lot of guitar for £659, I loved playing it. Cons: Good enough to hold its head up with more expensive guitars, except for the fret dressing. Smaller people beware – it’s still a dreadnought. Overall: An impressive guitar worthy of your intentions: flash and heartwarming. ACOUSTIC RATING OUT OF FIVE “The first thing to understand about the Performer is that it’s loud, really loud” really seems to tighten up and kick. The mid tones, too, are rich and thick, with buckets of sustain, and the treble has enough glassy sweetness to keep up with the bass without becoming shrill. I’d describe the treble response as more robust than the sweetness you tend to get with shorter-scale, smallerbody guitars, but it’s beguiling nonetheless. There’s not, of course, the sort of upper-fret access you get with the Monterey’s cutaway, but the tone is even all the way up to as Acoustic Ratings Exceptional Excellent Good Average Poor Contact Details Acoustica Ltd Tel: 01274 855432 www.stanfordguitars.co.uk New Music Ken Nicol Initial Variations Available from: www.kennicol.co.uk When a former Albion Band and current Steeleye Span member releases a solo album, you can be forgiven for expecting an extravaganza of traditional songs, but that’s not at all what you get from Initial Variations. Ken Nicol has a secret double life as a virtuosic and highly creative instrumental guitarist, and Initial Variations has somehow crept out of that secret world and into the open. You could almost be forgiven for thinking he wanted to keep it secret, so impenetrable is the packaging; every track has a two letter title, starting with ‘C.M.’ and ending with ‘P.A.’ The music ranges from neo-classical to bluegrass, all of it faultlessly virtuosic, but wonderful as it is, it’s hard to detect what the unifying theme of the album is. The titles are, I believe, the initials of friends, and the pieces are dedicated to them, but without further information I felt a little lost. That said, whilst I find that instrumental albums sometimes showcase virtuosity to the detriment of musical interest and creativity, that accusation cannot be levelled at Nicol. The musicianship is staggering, seldom are the compositions less than inspired, and fans of instrumental guitar are likely to be thrilled with this album. Sam Wise Paul Bullen Let The Night Roll In Available from: www.paulbullen.com Paul Bullen’s debut album is a case of ‘not quite enough of anything’. Neither his voice, the songs, the performance nor the production is quite enough to lift this above the crowd. Let The Night Roll In is singer/songwriter pop, riding the current wave of Jack Johnson and his ilk, and from a local pub act this would be great stuff. The trouble is, that’s just how the album comes across – as a pub act trying and failing to make the step to something more. There’s nothing bad about this album, there’s just not enough to it to merit further attention. Sam Wise Marsha Swanson Sentient Stardust Available from: www.marshaswanson.com Sentient Stardust has a very polished and professional sound and obvious quality of musicianship, but despite its award-winning status it failed to engage me on any level. Ordinary and uninspiring, I found no real fault with it but also nothing to enjoy or hold my attention as the songs open well but go nowhere. It encompasses elements of folk, pop and jazz but isn’t terribly successful at any of them, individually or combined. Kate Lewis Jack Savoretti Between The Minds Available from: www.jacksavoretti.com Jack Savoretti is currently making waves outside of the acoustic/ folk scene and is threatening to achieve some success in the mainstream. If he does break out of the genre restrictions, then he deserves it. Between The Minds is an unplugged album that also features four new songs of which ‘Russian Roulette’ and ‘Lucy’ are the best. There’s also an excellent live version of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ on offer, a song which helps showcase Savoretti’s many varied influences. Brett Callwood 59