This maple came from a wood cutter in western PA in 1978. He cut wood for Herters for high grade gunstock blanks and he had a barn full of stickered 2 inch thick flamed maple planks. He sold John Greven some of the stiffest, and it ended up making 7 guitars, one of which ended up in Mary Chapin Carpenter's hands via Steve Spellman (it took her three years to talk him out of it as it was his personal, behind the counter guitar, according to John). All of the guitars built from this particular maple were excellent as the wood was pretty but also nice and stiff and hard, which, for Eastern maple, is unusual.
Nicely aged, golden Sitka Spruce top
Newly replaced, Cedar neck. The guitar originally had a small neck, custom made for the original owner with a 1 10/16" nut width. For ease of resale, John Greven just replaced the neck with a 1 11/16 nut and 2 3/16" string spacing at the saddle. He retained the original headstock faceplate, with a gorgeous horse inlay, designed by the original owner. The headstock also features John's "banner" Greven logo.
Original, Gotoh gold-plated tuning machines
Purling lines form the rosette & adorn the top & back of the guitar
Fretboard is Ebony with slotted diamond fretmarkers
Ebony bridge with Ebony pins/MOP dots
The guitar sounds fantastic, very dry & woody, with crystalline highs
SN: SD004, this was an early Small Dread model that John experimented with- we love it!
