Lakewood A-32

Small acostic guitar, with no amplification, completly acoustic, handmade by deutsch luthiers at Lakewood (Made in Germany). The size is something between an OM and a double zero with no cutaway. The guitar belongs to their Deluxe series, the one just under the best, the Premiere series. This means this instrument is a very high quality guitar with lots of appointments and features but with less ornamentations compared to the Premiere series. The woods (all solid) are indian rosewood back and sides and bindings, ebony fretboard (18 frets but you can play only the first 14 due to the lack of cutaway) and bridge, mahogany neck, sytka spruce top, bone nuts. Tuners are "classical" style Schaller. The year is 2004, Hiscox case. The guitar I was searching for, a modern OM with slotted headstock, nice woods, no amplification. At first sight this guitar looks like a small supercar ... you feel from the very first sight that it is a quality instrument. It is small, comfortable, but ... how will it sounds? Small?

I play Jazz mainly so I considered to buy (again) an acoustic to play Jazz chords and lines on it, I was searching for a good neck and a big satisfying acoustic sound in a comfortable size. Talking about style, I squeeze the chords and then play fast runs with the pick you know ... Joe Pass style. I can say this guitar has a huge sound. It is almost incredible how big it sounds. A small guitar but with an impressive, big volume. I tried many acosutic guitars but this one blows them away in terms of volume. For example I tried the Tommy Emmanuel Maton, sorry to say this aussie friends, this German Jewel blows away your OM under many points of view but first of all for what concerns the volume. Impressive volume for a guitar this small! The tone is rich, complex, the guitar has a clear personality of its own. A lot (A LOT!!) of sustain from this small beauty.You play a chord and guitar continue to sings for ten seconds. Wonderful. This little box resonates very well, you can see looking inside it that it is built very very well. The sound is not bright nor closed, but it is rich and full. It has an acoustic "brown sound" (sorry Eddie!), it articulates the notes very well, and you can always hear them all in chords playing. Good dynamic, the thing feels your playing, your touch. I think it is a very nice guitar for a lot of style, normal folk strummers, jazz players, fingerpickers... when a guitar is this good, there are no boundaries. It is a real pleasure to play this instrument. Everything sounds good, sure, if you're good enough to stay at the level of this instrument!

I did buy this one used so I can't talk about factory set up. When I had it, I had to do my own set up on it to make it sounds as it can. The neck had to be pulled and I did. The strings was very old (awful) D'Addario's so I change them with 012 Elixir. I clean the guitar with my usual oils and took good care of her. After my set up the guitar was like new. More than anything else did the strings (I suggest Elixir strings to every acoustic player, they upgrade your instrument believe me) and the change in the neck tension. Too many people play with guitars that have a very bad neck tension so their necks and their guitars in the end are not what they could be. REGOLATE YOUR NECKS, you will have better guitars!

About the woods. Ebony is perfect, absolutly black and pure ebony without absolutly NO imperfections! Indian rosewwod is splendid, tiger rosewood, very nice sounding and spectacular. Mahogany is good but it has some imperfections here and there (neck). Nothing that affects the playability of the guitar, but in a guitar so well built seeing those imperfections left me a little disappointed. Sytka spruce top is very good, it has a little, very small, almost invisible knurl, but apart from this nothing else. Appointments are very well built. No imperfections of any kind, no excess in the gluing, no flaws in the workmanship absolutly. The finish is very well done. The fretboard very comfortable and smooth. 7 is my rating because of the mahogany and of the small, invisible knurl in th sytka on the top. This guitar is a handmade guitar, a luthier's guitar, it shouldn't have these imperfections. Apart from these things, a work of art.

It is a professional instrument. Play it as it is supposed to be and the guitar will last for decades.

I didn't need any kind of support at the moment but I have faith that they will respond promptly. They still very small as a company, so they probably still have the opportunity to be very fast in customer service.

My overall rating is 8. I don't doubt that their Premiere series would get a pure 10 because the imperfections I found on this guitar (only very small esthetical flaws) I think are not present in their best instruments. But apart from this, this instrument is a winner. A splendid guitar, very well built with a distinctive sound, an original tone, impressive volume and sustain. In the end I love this guitar absolutly, maybe I will trade it for the 32 model in the premiere series, who knows! But don't be intimidated by my rating. This A-32, is a wonderful instrument all the way. I'm just very fussy and meticolous when it is time to review an istrument. This guitar will give you years of enjoyment for sure.

handcrafted, solid woods, rosewood body, spruce top, ebony fretboard (44 mm). slotted peghead, this model with 14 frets clear of the body. There is also a version with 12 frets and a wider fretboard (46 mm)

fantastic for fingerstyle, especially when used to work with classical guitars, but for blues also. Very clear, balanced and much louder then it may seem at first impression.

very good quality for the money, beautiful woods, great finish, perfect setup

obviously this is not the axe for the next metal gig but it's absolutely reliable, after almost 3 years I have nothing to worry about. It's been played a lot and still looks almost new even though my guitar was made in 1998.

never had any problems myself, but I heard the service is second to none!

I've been playing for about 25 years, there are a few other Lakewood guitars in my collection, besides that I play guitars made by Tom Launhardt.

beautiful wood, great shape, great playability.
thats what you need.
no extras, but a solid case.

mainly for fingerpicking + soft strumming. i use it a lot for composing because its giving you so much warmth and tone.
very unique and beautiful. very dynamic.
its really hard to record, though !!! i finally ended um with a AMT omni mic in the middle of the soundhole and a U87 15cm away from the soundwhole.
dont hit that guitar to hard ( strumming), the instrument can handle it but it wont translate to the recording that well.
its not that flexible, but what it does it does incredibly well !

very good setup, strings were a little high, but i like it so its still like that. giving you some dynamics....

no worries about the reliability.

very nice and FAST. martin seeliger himself is replying on emails within hours.

i got several acoustics ( old hofners, taylor Dread, .. ), but this one has most "magic" and is very inspiring. be careful when recording, this guitar can "cover" a lot of other stuff due to its strong character !!!

This guitar is basically a 12 fret to the body,slot headstock, solid spruce top and solid rosewood back and sides, grand concert sized steel strung acoustic fingerstyle instrument. The board is ebony with no inlays as would be the case with a classical guitar. There are side position markers at the 5th and 7th frets. The width of the board at the nut is 45mm giving a nice spacious feel to hammer ons and pull offs etc, this along with a reasonable string spacing at the bridge( not full blown ragtime width )makes for a great fingerstyle guitar. The one piece mahogany neck is of a fairly flat C profile which helps compensate for the width of the board. The body is compact with a fairly tight waist and a depth akin to typical grand concert dimensions, this along with the satin finish on this particular instrument( gloss finishes are now available as standard G ( made in 1996 I believe ) makes for a very pleasant compact guitar to play seated or standing. All the binding is solid wood in a number of layers of differing types. This along with the abalone "Lakewood" inlay on the headstock makes up the subtle decoration on this guitar. The neck on this instrument is a traditional glued joint ,however I believe Lakewood are now utilising a bolt system on some or all guitars. This guitar also features scalloped bracing. The nut and saddle are bone. The guitar came with ebony/abalone inlaid bridge pins in a rosewood bridge. Lakewood guitars are made in Germany. s

No Kidding, this is the most responsive fingerstyle guitar I have ever played.It is incredibly harmonically rich in both standard and drop tunings. The low end response in drop tunings is very strong, while retaining a crisp definitive tone. I usually use 12's on my acoustics (others include Martin D28, Larrivee OM10, TakemineFP307S ),but as I had a set of Extra Light 10's around I put them on just to see what happened, it was still incredibly rich even with such a light string. I have finally settled on an 11-56 set for this guitar as it provides the best of both worlds. I play alot of drop tune instrumental stuff and this guitar provides a great response in terms of dynamic headroom and still gives a nice high end content across the whole board even when using bare fingers, as opposed to picks or nails, which I prefer. The whole guitar feels very lively, picking up the slightest brush across the top etc. and amplifying it in a quite uncanny way, probably due to the really light construction.

I am usually very difficult to please when it comes to set up. So much so that the joy of buying a new acoustic or electric is offset by the knowledge that I will become obsessive about set up etc until it is just right, especially nut height and overall action( I like a fairly low action without losing all the tone, the impossible dream ?). This is the first guitar that I have not had to touch in 20+ years! The nut is one of the best cut examples for a factory ( albeit a small one )guitar that I have ever come across. The whole construction is superb. I know I should find fault,I usally do, but this guitar is right on the money in every department. Whoever did ther set up on this guitar deserves the industry award for best set up,if there was such a thing. Sorry guys, can't find anything to be upset about here.

Like any delicate handmade acoustic, there is a certain fragility that demands respect. It feels a long way from my old warhorse D28 which I seem to rememeber once being unmarked, shiny and new. One factor I have already noticed is how stable the neck remains regardless of tuning and temperature fluctuations. I live on the English/Scottish Border here in the UK where the climate can be very cold and wet. It's been that way lately and this guitar still sings, unlike some other high end guitars I have owned and been disappointed by as conditions change from day to day. I would not hesitate to use this guitar anywhere. I would always take a 14 fretter also due to the need for a different kind of tone and stylistic considerations.

I emailed the company once and got a reply within the hour. In many years of experience of the music industry in general, that was pretty astounding.

I own many electrics and acoustics ( Gibsons, Fenders ,G&L, Martin, Larrivee,Takemine etc.) having played semi professionally and professionally in the secular and then Christian Scene for a long time as well as having a good studio set up at home. I record and gig both solo and with different bands therefore I would tend to judge a guitar on it's ability to do the specific job. As a fingerstyle guitar this A32 is perfection for a disciplined approach. It could not fill the role of a D28 or an OM,nor is it intended to. It's just great for what it does best. Having not had a chance to play any other Lakewoods I cannot comment on whether or not every one will be as good as this one, but judging by the build quality and standard of this one it would be a reasonable bet to assume that you would be rewarded by going the extra mile to check one of these out if looking for a specialist fingerstyle guitar. I was suprised to find out that Richie Blackmore has been using one of these in the studio for his more recent acoustic stuff apart from that I don't know of many name endorsements for these instruments except for Dave Matthews who has an M32( more of an auditorium style version ). Then again it's not down to whoelse plays 'em, it's down to whether it works for you and your music.