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Grading notes
All of our items are
graded according to a 5 star rating criterion, where the 5A grade is close to “perfect”.
Whenever
we apply this criterion to acoustic tops, the 5A grade
will be the stiffest sets, perfectly quartersawn, with the tightest grains all throughout the top (more than 20 grains per
inch), beautiful uniform color and a nice silking effect. 4A grade
will be nearly as nice as the 5A grade, with the only exception being that it may contain some light color banding, and/or
grain variation; the grain count may be smaller as well (although the count will be at or above 14 grains per inch).
3A sets are
nice sets as well, with great tonal qualities; they will be stiff and fairly pleasing to the eye. This grade does allow for
some more obvious “defects” such as color banding, hard (more defined) grains, minor grain waves and a more open
grain (down to about 10 GPI). The 2A and 1A grades are of lesser quality, mostly used in inexpensive guitars by our mainstream clientele.
That being said, these lower grade tops can - at
times - be a tremendous bargain for the luthiers who prefer to add a certain “character” to their instrument and
put more value in the tonal quality of the set, rather than its looks. Whenever we list these sets on our website, we’ll make sure to select only those for which the grading
criterion does not do justice (for example where a high grade stiff top will be downgraded to a lesser grade due to a minor
cosmetic defect).
We will describe the stiffness of all our listed sets, which should be a good
indication as to how good of a tonewood they are. They are usually classified as follows (from best to worst):
very stiff, stiff, fairly stiff, not stiff.
Furthermore, here’s a bit of explanation about our figured
tops: 5A will have superb figure, covering about 100% of the set. They are usually described
as “Premium, Beautiful, or Superb figure”. 4A will have
excellent figure, covering about 65% to 80% of the set. “Excellent and Great figure” are used to describe these. 3A will have great figure, covering about 45% to 60% of the set. They’re
usually described as “Good figure”. These grades are not normally listed in our website, since they are of the lowest quality (figure-wise): 2A will have good figure, covering about 30% of the set. 1A will have some figure, covering about 10 to 25% of the set.
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