170 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 www.premierguitar.com
The fretboard is 1-3/4" at the nut and 2-1/4"
at the saddle, which is not an unusual width,
but the flatness and thinness of the neck
make it seem wider. It plays like buttah, and
that’s a tall order for an acoustic. The body
is 19-3/4" long and 15-1/4" across the lower
bout, with a nice slope from 3-1/2" at the
neck to 4-5/8" at the butt. The Gotoh 510
“Contour” tuners are a lovely complement,
and feel solid as a rock. All Kragenbrink
guitars ship in climate controlled, premium
Ameritage hardshell cases, which are quite
attractive and sturdy, but heavy.
Lance Kragenbrink has been building guitars
in his one-man shop since 2000, producing
six to eight guitars a year, and he currently
has a two- to three-year backlog. He has several models, small bodies and dreadnaughts,
along with a 12-string and a short-scale guitar. He worked hard to develop his signature
sound, which he describes as an even balance
that is rich and powerful and highly sensitive. I can’t find a single word to argue with
in that description. He also says he prefers
understated appointments that feel and look
organic, and again, all I can say is “amen.”
One of the first things I did was to take the
guitar to visit my local Guitar Mafia. Hearing
it when it’s on your own lap is one thing, but
hearing it played by someone else whose
playing you’ve heard most of your life is
another. This guitar has an almost ethereal
tone, but at the same time it’s incredibly
powerful. Each guitarist brought out some
different properties. In Steve Armstrong’s
hands I noticed incredible punch and snap,
but when Pat Smith picked it up it was
the sustain and brilliance that really came
through. Michael Belmont brought out a
funky-cool undertone that still had a bell-like purity. I don’t think this is a sign of a
guitar with multiple personalities; this guitar
simply gives you tremendous tone however
you approach it. Some really appreciated
the wide fretboard while others found it too
much of an adjustment. The body shape and
size were universally popular.
Ever curious, Armstrong reached inside the
soundhole to see what he could detect in
the bracing. He thought, from what he could
feel, that Kragenbrink hybridized X and
classical-style bracings. I asked Lance about
that, and he told me that his ideas about
bracing come from his own intuition and
experience. “A guitar is a guitar,” he said. “If
you build something that looks like one, it’ll
probably sound like one. So what you’re left
with to distinguish your guitars from the rest
are playability and sound; your own personal
sound, which comes in a large part from the
way you voice and brace the top.” His brac-
ing is similar to Martin bracing, but he has a
few wrinkles of his own. “I have specific plac-
es that I put braces on my guitars,” he said,
“and I spend a lot of time flexing and bend-
ing the top. There’s a certain feel I’m going
for; a certain flexibility. Where I place the
tone bars depends on the flexibility of the
top, and I might have to take quite a bit off
a brace to allow the top to vibrate the way
I want it to, to get my sound.” Every piece
of wood is different, so Kragenbrink says the
bracing is a little different for each guitar.
Turn Those Fingers Loose!
Back home again, I decided to spend a little
time recording right away, because I suspected this guitar would be an amazing studio
instrument with its brilliant highs and beautifully supported lows. I was right. It shimmers
with warmth, and is capable of both thunder
and lightning. Not many guitars will give you
both. It records very purely, without any weird
mid-rangey artifacts or bass overdrive, even
dropped into a C tuning.
On the couch for an evening, it was a perfectly delightful companion. The body shape
is quite comfortable to hold for long periods
of time, and the wide fretboard and thin neck
let me play without fatigue. Some of the
DADGAD stretches require a pretty big finger
spread, and they were a bit of a challenge.
Fortunately, hands adjust pretty quickly to
new territories.
I couldn’t resist a little flatpickin’ just to see
what this baby would do. For the loose,
Celtic-style big chords with lots of moving
notes between, it’s lovely. However, for serious fiddle tune or cross-pickin’, that wide
fretboard and string spacing is not ideal. A
flatpickin’ guitar is not what this axe is trying
to be, so no harm, no foul. It is, however, one
of the best damn fingerstyle guitars these fingers have ever been on, and that’s just fine.
Standard tuning is great on this guitar, which
is no surprise, but when you drop it into
altered tunings it simply comes alive. Wide
fretboards encourage a serious fingerstylist
to be more accurate and aggressive, to nail
the hammer-ons with both hands, to push
beyond how we normally play just because
we can. Big, booming bassy chords sustained
beautifully under melodic lines, and har-
monics rang nearly forever, letting me play
melody over the top and lose only the strings
I touched. Slides were great, and I could still
hear the original note ringing clearly when
I slid to another, especially if I dug in a little
bit on the attack. It takes a truly remarkable
instrument to do all of that without over-
whelming the ears with unfriendly overtones,
so well done.
The Final Mojo
The joy of playing a top-notch, truly exceptional instrument cannot be compared to
much of anything else, but if you’re reading PG you probably know that. This is one
of those guitars that can provide a peak
experience for a player, where time doesn’t
mean anything and the world drops away.
In the studio, this could become a go-to
axe that could complement any recording.
If you’re a serious fingerstyle player, this
could be your Holy Grail.
Kragenbrink Guitars
MSRP $5650
kragenbrinkguitars.com
you’re looking for a monster fingerstyle guitar that will allow you to
soar.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you’d rather be flatpickin’ or if
you aren’t ready for a guitar this
advanced.
Rating... 5.0
ONTHEWeb
Click here to hear sound clips
of the guitar in action at
premierguitar.com
OM Fingerstylist
