Ramin Fallah, 2026

A brand new spruce guitar is not supposed to sound open; this one does. This 2026 Ramin Fallah is a Stage Model, № 486 from his Istanbul workshop, and it arrived with a wood combination we had never seen together: a top that reads as very dark cedar but is in fact thermo treated spruce, over back and sides of yew.

This is not our first encounter with Fallah's work. Some years ago, while we were preparing to record, a colleague lent us one of his guitars to practice on, and it was a genuinely nice instrument to live with. This one made the trip from Turkey to our showroom in Austin, Texas, and it is the first of his guitars we have represented.

What makes it worth a close look is the gap between how it looks and how it is built. Everything on the surface reads modern: the dark top, the minimal rosette, the side sound port, the aluminum rollers on the tuners. Underneath the soundboard it is seven fan braced with two closing braces. No lattice, no doubletop. It is as traditional as a classical guitar gets, and it sounds like it, with far more volume than that usually implies.

The headline is power. Recording the video we had to keep checking our audio interface to make sure we were not peaking. This is a loud guitar, unusually so for traditional construction, and the projection holds up right across the range.

The thermo treated top is where the character comes from. The sound is phenomenally open in a way brand new spruce almost never is, with real weight behind the basses. Judged by ear alone you might guess cedar from some of these tones, though it brightens under a firmer right hand in a way cedar does not.

The yew back and sides are the wildcard. We have never played a guitar built with it, so we will not pretend to know exactly what it contributes, but to our ears it behaves something like rosewood: warm and silky, with a long decay.

String by string, the first can be lush and warm, but the note explodes off the string when you ask it to, with a very articulate Spanish character. The second has an enormous amount of sustain and some genuinely profound color. The third projects hard. The fourth turns on a dime. The fifth and sixth have tons of support and, notably, no big popping attack followed by a quick decay: the note stays wherever you are on the fingerboard.

Playability is easy. The 650 mm scale and 52 mm nut feel completely familiar, and the neck sits on the medium side with a slight D shape and a flat spot through the center that makes barre chords noticeably comfortable.

One note on strings. The set that arrived on the guitar was far too tight and carried a carbon first string, which made the instrument sound quite off. It settled properly with D'Addario XTC45FF and a normal tension nylon first string, which is how it is strung now and how it is played in the video.

The top is thermo treated spruce. Fallah's reasoning is that the thermal treatment speeds up sound transmission through the wood, giving a quicker and more sensitive response, and the openness of a guitar this new is hard to argue with. The visual side effect is that the top reads as a very dark cedar. It is not. It is spruce.

Around the sound hole sits a modern rosette, really more of a border, executed in natural wood throughout. The bridge is Gilbert inspired, with sleek little cutaways and a wood tie block, and the tie block is drilled for 18 holes rather than 12. The benefit follows the same symmetry logic as a six hole block: one hole on either side with the center hole lowest, so the string exits at a steep break angle. A protector sits behind the bridge so the top does not get scratched during string changes.

Underneath, the bracing is a seven fan pattern with two closing braces, about as traditional as a soundboard gets and a real surprise given how modern the guitar looks.

The back and sides are yew, Taxus, a wood you almost never see on a guitar. Before we knew what it was we sent photographs to a few luthiers, and every one of them came back saying they loved it. A small sound port is neatly carved into the upper side facing the player, giving a much better sense of what the instrument is actually putting out.

The neck is Spanish cedar with a reinforcement strip visible down the center, and the headstock carries a handsome yew veneer on the back behind a sleek, modern outline. It is topped with DF tuners, our first experience with them: a fine stippled pattern across the base plates, a very smooth turn, and rollers in a strikingly different aluminum finish.

Specifications

Model: Stage

Number: 486

Top: Thermo Treated Spruce

Construction: Traditional, seven fan bracing with two closing braces

Finish: Lacquer

Neck: Spanish Cedar with center reinforcement

Fingerboard: African Ebony

Bridge: Gilbert inspired, 18 hole tie block

Appointments: Side sound port, yew headstock veneer

Ramin Fallah is an Iranian born luthier based in Istanbul, where he hand builds classical and flamenco guitars, including made to order custom instruments. The Stage Model is the line in his lineup built specifically with performers in mind, designed for a powerful sound with clear separation between the bass and treble strings so the instrument reads clearly at a distance. Alongside it, his lineup includes the higher end Dreamy Model and an Ardeshir Farah signature guitar.

This is our introduction to his work, and it is a strong one. He is building more instruments for us, so if this model is not in stock, please write and we will tell you what is on the way.

New. The guitar came to us directly from Fallah's workshop in Istanbul and had not been played before it reached us. The only playing it has seen since is ours for the video.