Steve Agnew OOO

I bought this guitar a few weeks ago and have played it every day since. I have also been comparing it consistently, over the last week or so, with my Stanford RD5Vin.
When I first played this guitar, in the shop, it had old Martin strings on. The shop gave me some Elixer 80/20 nanos to replace them. They immediately improved an already impressive tone. Recently I put some Elixer PB nanos on (12-53), my personal favourites, and again, the tone has taken another little boost.

This is an extremely well designed and built 000 style acoustic guitar. There’s not a lot of bling on it but the American walnut and pear wood binding add a real touch of class. Even the pale spruce top has some grain showing and with the nice pear wood based rosette, presents rather well, I think.
The asymmetric bridge looks just right too. Steve told me, that on an earlier guitar of his, he’d replaced a more standard bridge with the asymmetric design, and the tone had noticeably improved. He couldn’t be certain why though. Another small feature of Steve’s work is that he uses Awabe (rather then abalone) for decoration. It’s a crushed shell that has a rather pinker hue than abalone. It only appears on the “A” logo, on the headstock, on this guitar. I’ve seen it more liberally used on one of his other guitars and it is really nice and blends with the natural colours of spruce and cedar very well.

Tone is very hard to put across in writing. When I first played this guitar, a few weeks before I went to buy it, I thought it had a strong “middle” presence. But not the harsh middle you get in some acoustics, rather a warm, expansive tone, that gave the guitar definition and to some extent, penetration. On the day of purchase, I’d been out to a few shops trying some higher end guitars. Soon as I strummed a chord on the Agnew (Am7 for those interested) it stood out. The rich sound was by far the nicest I’d heard that day and rang around the shop. After just a few minutes of flat and finger picking, I bought it.

Now, since then, I’ve been through the honeymoon period and spent a lot of time comparing the Agnew to my established favourite, the Stanford.
Looks: don’t come into it for me. I think they are both gorgeous.
Playability: no contest, the Agnew wins hands down. They have the same width nut (45mm) but the Agnew feels slimmer, faster and smoother to play.
Tone: I’d have to award a draw. The Agnew has a versatile tone. Well defined and articulate, even punchy, it is very suited to finger picking and also sounds fantastic with a pick. The difference is that the Stanford with it’s size and quality, totally out tones the Agnew as a strummer. The 2 guitars are kind of opposites. The Stanford is excellent on all styles of flat picking and very decent at finger picking. The Agnew can’t compete at the very bottom end of the tone spectrum, yet has an equal presence of tone that sounds full and lush.
When finger picking, I’d choose the Agnew every time. When flat picking I’d choose the Agnew for single line work and arpeggio work. But the Stanford for strumming and certain arpeggio-chord work.
For accompanying vocals, the Stanford fulfils the role for a powerful, full backing. The Agnew would be my choice for more intricate and/or subtle arrangements.

I’m glad to own more than one guitar but if the Agnew was my only guitar, I’d have no complaints. It feels just right in my hands, is sweet to my ears and even has that woody smell, I enjoy every time I pick it up. It has the individuality you only seem to get from single luthier acoustics. It’s light, responsive and handsome. Only things to add are that it came with a nice, vintage style case and was very reasonably priced.