Samuel Carvalho, 2024

This is one of the first Brazilian guitars ever to arrive at The Guitar Collection, and it turned out to be one of the more surprising instruments we have had through the shop. It is a 2024 Samuel Carvalho Série Especial, the top of his line, and it is his 847th guitar.

What makes it fascinating is not just the sound, which is immediate and full of bite, but the fact that it quietly breaks a rule we thought we understood. This guitar has the highest main air resonance we have ever measured, sitting somewhere between an A and a B flat. That is higher than some of the celebrated French guitars known for high air resonance, and yet nothing about this instrument feels thin or mid-rangey. The low end is rich and rumbling. None of the notes are sour. It simply does not behave the way the measurement would predict.

Specifications

Luthier: Samuel Carvalho
Year: 2024
Model: Série Especial, No. 847
Top: Spruce double top with Nomex core
Back & Sides: Brazilian rosewood, doubled sides
Construction: Doubletop, seven fan bracing
Finish: French Polish
Scale Length: 650mm
Nut Width: 53mm
Air Resonance: A
Weight: 2040g
Action: 3.5mm bass, 2.5mm treble at the 12th fret
Tuners: VS
Strings: D'Addario XTC45FF with normal tension nylon first string
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Condition: Mint

Sound & Playability

The first thing you notice is the attack. On almost any guitar, cheap or fine, a note grows a little just after the pluck. This one does not seem to grow at all. You pluck it and the sound is immediately there, fully supported, with an exciting bite to it. It is a little like a guitar on overdrive, and it is genuinely impressive to play.

There is a hardiness and richness to the sound that recalls the guitars of Gernot Wagner, which makes sense once you learn Wagner is listed among Carvalho's inspirations. Some of that likely comes from the weight and the doubled sides. The basses rumble and, more importantly, they keep supporting everything above them. Play a low E and you hear it running underneath the entire passage, a pianistic effect, as though you had put the sustain pedal down.

Taken string by string, the first string has a sparkle that can read as very bright or as subdued and sweet depending on how you attack it, and it is extremely sensitive. It lights up the whole guitar. The second is sweet and does not simply pop and fade, there is real sustain there. The third is clearer than most, which does a lot to explain why the guitar sounds the way it does in chords. The fourth and fifth carry that grit and bite into the notes that last. The sixth is deep and supportive throughout.

Playability is a highlight. The action is extremely low, pushing the boundary of what is usually possible: 3.5mm on the sixth string at the twelfth fret and 2.5mm on the first. On most guitars that would mean buzzing everywhere under a heavy attack, and it simply does not happen here except when we lean on it very hard. Credit where it is due, Danny Shoemaker at Straight Frets in Austin did superb setup work on this instrument.

The neck is the standard 650mm scale with a 53mm nut width, one millimeter wider than typical, and it is nicely round and close to a C shape with a touch more thickness than average. Not thick, not thin. There is reinforcement in the neck and, unusually for a classical guitar, an adjustable truss rod.

Construction & Design

The top is a spruce double top with a Nomex core over a seven fan bracing design, with spruce braces down the center and cedar toward the outside. The rosette is a subtle affair in green and tan, simple and very handsome. The top carries a glossy French polish while the bridge is finished in a contrasting satin, a small detail that reads beautifully in person.

There is a small, neatly integrated armrest, the kind we tend to prefer, along with a raised fingerboard that makes upper fret access easy, and a single soundport rather than the two port arrangement some builders use. The port gives the player more of what the audience is hearing and lets you taste a bit more of the overtone content.

The back and sides are a beautiful set of Brazilian rosewood with a striking run of sapwood down the center, and the wood genuinely sparkles in person. The sides are doubled, and the guitar has real heft as a result, weighing in around 2040 grams. This is a double top, but nowhere near the featherweight school of construction, and that weight is audible in how rich and grounded the instrument sounds.

The headstock is modest and unshowy, with an ebony veneer on the back. The tuners are VS, a Brazilian brand, and they are very smooth, with aluminum rollers and buttons that jut out in a way we came to like more than expected.

About the Luthier

Samuel Carvalho is a Brazilian luthier with an enormous body of work behind him, this being his 847th instrument. The Série Especial is his highest series, and the level of finish and setup here reflects that. His guitars point clearly toward the modern double top school, and Gernot Wagner is among the makers he cites as an inspiration, something you can hear in the density and richness of the sound.

Mint. Recently arrived and professionally set up in Austin, ready to play as it sits.