The owner of this guitar is a wonderful client of mine who bought several fine guitars from me after retiring with the expectations of playing a lot each day. As it turned out however, this did not materialize as he originally envisioned and in a recent discussion with him he decided that these guitars should be out in the world being played. This is one of those guitars. The guitar is virtually unplayed and in impeccable as new condition as if it just arrived from Michael's shop with the exception of what appears to be a line in the finish that mimics a crack, though I can find no evidence of a crack inside. Here is what I wrote when the guitar first arrived, still applies:

I really enjoyed receiving this guitar since just a couple weeks ago I was in Ireland visiting Michael and I was able to see him working on this guitar while it was still on the bench in his shop. Man, she turned out even more beautiful than I expected. When I returned one of my clients was nice enough to send me the score for the Edin Solis composition that Berta Rojas plays in the video to the right (notably on her own O'Leary guitar) . I loved the piece and was able to play the first few measures when this guitar arrived, sounds as good as the video (OK the guitar does, not me!)

Superb thick, ringing, round, responsive trebles, really quite exceptional, accompanied by simply incredible basses. Michael explained to me ( look for a video interview with Michael about this on my site soon) that he has combined aspects of contemporary lattice guitars, with those of traditional fan braced guitars in order to capture the best qualities of both styles in one instrument, in short, a powerful, focused and responsive contemporary guitar with lush overtones and a full round sound. Mission accomplished. The Graf tuners are custom designed by Jorg Graf to compliment the Celtic style rosette are a perfect compliment functionally and artistically for the guitar.

Look for an article in Classical Guitar magazine about Michael's guitars soon. Besides Berta, David Russell and Sharon Isbin have acquired O'Leary guitars.

Learn more about Michael O'Leary guitars

©2011 Classic Guitars International - All rights reserved