Ray Kraut's Recent OM in Acoustic Guitar Magazine

[justonwo]

Very cool.

http://www.acguitar.com/article/defa...d=28217&page=2

[DamianL]

All three guitars on that page are the nuts...amazing..

D

[Huckleberry]

Interesting - it looks like Ray is also exploring the trail that Michi Matsuda has blazed. Personally, I absolutely love the aesthetics of this combination of function and art. The feel and tone of the instrument are always paramount to me, though.

I've only played one Kraut (which I enjoyed very much - and he's one of the top candidates for builder of my next guitar, whenever that may be) but I can report that, to my tastes at least, the more outlandish looking Matsudas do actually sound better too.

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Interesting - it looks like Ray is also exploring the trail that Michi Matsuda has blazed. Personally, I absolutely love the aesthetics of this combination of function and art. The feel and tone of the instrument are always paramount to me, though.

I've only played one Kraut (which I enjoyed very much - and he's one of the top candidates for builder of my next guitar, whenever that may be) but I can report that, to my tastes at least, the more outlandish looking Matsudas do actually sound better too.

Huck, better than the Krauts? Or better than the less outlandish looking Matsudas?

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Huck, better than the Krauts? Or better than the less outlandish looking Matsudas?

Now this one can't be quantified with 'better'.

My sample of one Kraut OM was very balanced with a coherent tone from bass to treble, along and across the strings. Beautiful, but predictably beautiful.

The Matsudas have a bass response that is very different to the trebles. It's difficult to describe guitar tone, but I would describe a Matsuda's trebles as 'fat with overtones' and its bass as 'pure and fundamental'. The difference is really quite striking when you play one - they really are unique and like nothing else out there. Do I like it? I'm actually not sure!

Edit: in answer to your question, better than the more standard Matsudas.

[justonwo]

I played one Matsuda at Healdsburg (the other one or two were display only) while Michi hovered over me like a hawk (and on his cell phone the whole time) and found the tonal quality in the bass to be very, very similar to what I heard in the Kraut guitars. You could tell they both come from the same school of building. It was this Matsuda, I think:

[Billy Boy]

Played both at Healdsburg...can't say one was better than the other...different, yes...better, not to my ears...both had outstanding guitars...love the fact that we have so many marvelous luthiers from which to choose...