Stephan Connor

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Stephan Connor has been building concert classical guitars since 1994 from his workshop in Cataumet, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, near a historic windmill overlooking a pond. Over more than three decades and over 500 instruments, he has become one of the most sought after American luthiers of his generation, with guitars in the hands of Sergio and Odair Assad, Eliot Fisk, Scott Tennant, Marco Tamayo, Anabel Montesinos, and Angel Romero, among many others. He selects his tonewoods personally and seasons them in his own aged collection, which includes rare cedar acquired from the Robert Ruck Collection.

Connor's aesthetic is rooted in the Spanish tradition, but his instruments are unmistakably his own. He works fluently across double top, lattice, and traditional construction, and his signature touches include a sound portal facing the player, magnetic adjustable soundport covers, and a removable tornavoz that lowers the main air resonance for a deeper, old world color. Elevated fingerboards, comfortable 640 mm scale options, and hand applied French polish complete instruments that unite the warmth of the Spanish voice with the power, clarity, and responsiveness modern performers demand. Many of his guitars carry a name as well as a number, a small signal of how personally he approaches each build.

Connor guitars have become a fixture in our shop. No. 512, the first he built specifically for us, carries the area code of our hometown of Austin and pairs modern double top power with breathy Spanish warmth. Since then we have welcomed the powerful No. 529 'Mana', a spectacular Floresta, and the lattice braced 'Quantum', one of the finest guitars of its kind we have handled. 'Nyla', a cedar double top with Madagascar rosewood, is the latest arrival. These instruments never break up under pressure, and our expert team can arrange a showroom visit or reserve the next one to arrive.