I took delivery of a new commissioned guitar a week or so ago, and wanted to post about it here because the maker is someone I haven't seen get too much attention.
My main guitars for a while have been an old Gibson HG-00 and a Guild F30R, but I'd been interested in a smaller bodied rosewood-y guitar, as I have designs on gifting the Guild to my brother, who played it in his wedding. I poked around vintage options, and strongly considered a 00-21NY, but got curious about custom builds, especially because I've been interested for a while in domestic tonewoods. I ended up contacting Aviva Pilgrim (previously Steigmeyer), the luthier at
Preservation Guitar, and commissioning her Aviva's Special, a 0 size guitar, with osage orange back and sides. She apprenticed with Fraulini Guitars and builds old-time inspired models, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the guitar she built me.
The tone is tremendous, first and foremost, but the V carve on the neck is tremendous and the french polish finish looks fantastic, like the guitar is both brand new and very old. The spruce/osage orange combo is everything I'd hoped, with a lush, ringing tone very like the rosewood tone I was looking for. Aviva was a pleasure to work with, and the guitar was everything I hoped and more. She builds with mostly hand tools and I decided to go without a truss rod (the neck is a deep enough V, with a bookmatched lamination for strength), so it's light as a feather and super responsive. I also was able to have her use her take on the old Stromberg-Voisinet bridge, as she makes another model based on their old Venetian design.
She doesn't seem to have much internet/promotional presence, so I wanted to give her some attention, as she's doing really great work as a one-woman luthier.
I don't know how to post pictures (sorry!) but here are two links to her gallery pictures of the guitar:
Aviva's Special front
Aviva's Special back