Hmmm, I've played Ken Brown's Graf and would second Rick's opinion except that there are so many builders today that it's next to impossible to sample enough to be sure. However, that guitar and another Graf I've played recently, are truly among the very best guitars ever built. I once attended a sound reinforcement workshop conducted by Ken and if memory serves, that guitar was so microphone friendly it almost (almost!) didn't matter where the mics were placed. The sound was that "everywhere" compared to most others.

I really believe we are experiencing the golden age of luthiery wherein builders like Graf are the leaders.

I do suspect that the tuning is the key. Some guitars just sound best in a particular tuning, often not standard tuning in spite of the supposed design. Dadgad is very often better suited to guitar design than standard, IMHO.

Question number one...I wonder if Ken's guitar was designed with the tuning in mind or is it just that good?

Question number two...Do we know of other singularly superb sounding guitars? Not general catagories or types or builders, but individual examples.

Peace. Mooh.