The riches run deep in this one. The only way to make Kevin Ryan’s Cathedral Grand model even better is to add time, which this lovely number from 2002 has in spades. Two decades of music have opened up the Italian Spruce top and Madagascar Rosewood body for a voice that’s butter smooth and round, with great note separation and dynamic range. In a word, expansive. The setup is silk-smooth with a 25.7″ scale and 1.75″ nut, arm bevel, and florentine cutaway. All wrapped up in a custom Calton case, this Ryan Cathedral Grand is ready for another 20 years.

Sheldon Schwartz may just be a miracle worker–the voice of this Advanced Auditorium is seraphic. In pairing Cocobolo Rosewood back and sides with a gorgeous Engelmann Spruce top, Schwartz gave this Grand Auditorium-sized guitar a tonal palette which is rich but controlled, with a great balance across the registers. Flatpickers, rejoice: the Advanced Auditorium responds with resounding projection and clarity. Prefer your fingertips? Fingerstyle accentuates the balance and scope, letting the low-end mellow out and accompany the middle registers in perfect harmony.
Airy overtones in the trebles fill out the voice, lending the instrument a sweetness and poise that is matched only by Schwartz’s appointments, from the figured Curly Maple bindings to the Mother-Of-Pearl and Shell vine inlays across the rosette and at the twelfth fret. Kept in immaculate condition, you won’t believe this guitar isn’t even a decade old. There are probably brand-new guitars out there with more scratches. Protected by an equally immaculate Ameritage hardshell case, there’s no need to worry about the instrument ever getting hurt in your travels.
Combining easy playability, rich tonality, be prepared to play this Advanced Auditorium for many, many long hours.