Sanden Guitars SRB-c, Style 2 review

Written by Caleb Hill on August 31, 2010

This week we took delivery of a

Sanden Guitars SRB-c, Style 2. There

are many acoustic guitar

manufacturers out there who, with the

aid of an astronomical marketing

budget and a large factory with

distributors worldwide, set the bar for

what people expect from a good

acoustic guitar. It could be said that in

some ways this robs us of

experiencing what real hand-made

instruments feel and sound like, and

so the likes of these hand-crafted

models are always welcome in the

office.

Opening the Hiscox Pro case that holds the Sanden SRB-c, the first thing I experienced was

the scent of the wood. Michael Sanden selects the materials for each guitar he makes by hand,

and the materials on this SRB (Small Round Bell) model are second to none. The back and

sides are solid East-Indian Rosewood and the top is Sitka spruce with flamed Koa rosette and

binding on this “style 2″ model. Tuning it up is quick and easy, the Schaller tuners reacting

very smoothly. It has a pinless rosewood bridge which anchors the strings with a good

breaking angle, but still allows for lots of sustain. While the body is gloss finished, the

mahogany neck on the SRB-c style 2 has a satin finish which feels very comfortable and

smooth to the touch.

Playing the SRB-c is as comfortable high up the neck as it is lower down, helped, no doubt,

by the neat cutaway and that satin neck finish. The fretboard is tight-grained ebony and the

abalone butterfly inlay at the 12th

fret looks great. The SRB-c produces a very warm tone and

the smaller body articulates the attack nicely when played with a little gusto. In terms of

amplification, the discrete B-Band pickup and preamp do an excellent job carrying through

the rich tones produced acoustically.

Where one might expect a guitar of this size to underperform, though, it does not.

For starters, the SRB-c certainly has good sustain. Sanden guitars are built for tone and

maximum sustain, even down to the finer details like the finish. For instance, Michael Sanden

opts not to fill the grain of the timber, as this allows the wood to resonate for longer, and it

does. The SRB-c body has a lower

bout width of 380mm and its upper

bout measures just 270mm. For a

small auditorium-shaped guitar, the

Sanden SRB-c has tremendous

balance across the frequency range

and projects a surprising amount of

bass with incredible sustain.

On close inspection of the finish, it is

clear that the Sanden SRB-c has

been made with the utmost care and

precise attention to detail. Every

meeting of timber is neat and clean,

even on the inside. The label carries

Michael’s signature, as does the

accompanying owner’s leaflet – a

nice personal touch.

The Sanden SRB-c may not have

worldwide distribution and expensive marketing campaigns, but that is because Sanden

guitars are still built the honest, original way: by one skilful man in a little workshop in

Sweden, with things like sandpaper and handsaws and chisels. These are things that one

would expect to pay a little more for, but then owning a custom hand-built guitar like the

Sanden Guitars SRB-c in today’s world of mass production is a very special thing.

About Caleb Hill

Caleb Hill has written 6 articles on this blog.

An early entrant into the musical world, I started on the Piano aged 6, and

moved on to the guitar in my late teens. Since then I've spent large amounts of

time in bands and recording studios learning as much as I could about guitars

and what makes them tick. I currently play for an indie-rock band in and around

London. I started at DV in 2007 managing guitars in the Barnet store and now,

even though I no-longer work in the store, find myself learning new things

about guitars every day.