[Bruce Sexauer]

I have not yet thicknesses the Cuban back or sides, which is where I will gain the most knowledge about them. I can say the wood is finer grained and somewhat heavier than Honduran. It is in the rosewood direction for a mahogany, much as tucurensis is in the mahogany direction for a rosewood, and if the two woods produced similar results that would be fine with me.

This is not the set I have been holding for several years now (mine is technically superior IMO though a bit less flamed) but was supplied by Eric.

Eric's tonal target falls much in line with Martin's of the early 1930's. As a flatpicker, I do not see any difference tonally in the ideal flat picking guitar compared to the ideal finger style guitar. I do see differences in the neck, string spacing, and general set up. Most of Eric's input, therefore, is concentrated in the specific shape of the neck, particularly the shoulder of the profile. My personal preference is for what I call a "double elliptical", whereas Eric prefers a vintage trianglular shape he encountered at some point in the past and which we have danced around for many years now with varying degrees of success. Like all Schoenbergs I have made, this guitar will be biased toward the fingerstyle player. When I play the guitars I make for Eric, the only issue is that his ideal set up is a bit low for me, and I have to restrain myself in order to keep the sound clean.