Gibson dreadnaughts would be too big. If I knew where to find one I'd recommend a Martin 0025K. A 0015 or 0017 would be comfortable and loud, but don't look other than small brown guitars. Re luthiers : Chris Eccleshall builds nice, large - ish guitars, which play well - very nice for gypsy jazz. Ralph Bown builds good guitars. In this case, where we want pretty, small, punchy, and easy to play, I'd recommend Bill Dinsdale as a luthier. If you can find any guitar by Keith Johns of Brighton, that would fit the bill to a T, but he has some progressive nervous disease and stopped building guitars years ago. He made the prettiest guitars on earth.