Stanford Golden Era P10 SM Natural

This guitar has a beautiful natural look to it and is impeccably build. Maybe a tad too much lacquer on it, which seems to be very common on all modern guitars, but not as much as on others I’ve seen.

From what I can see through the sound hole the bracing looks pretty much perfect, the X brace has no gap in it whatsoever, the braces are well sanded unlike on many other guitars, the braces are tucked into the kerfing and the guitar has side braces which again, many guitars around this price point don’t have. No glue squeeze-out can be seen, the back strap brace that runs through the middle of the back has the correct grain orientation on it (perpendicular to the grain on the back) – sometimes this is not the case when manufacturers use scrap pieces for bracing.

The body shape seems to be a copy of other similar guitars like the Eastman E20p or Martin 00-28vs and these are again probably copies of the guitars invented in the 1920s and 1930s. The label inside the guitar says “True vintage design from 1920-1937”.

The most annoying thing about cheaper parlour guitars is that they put very narrow necks on them. Pretty much all travel and parlour style guitars under 1000 euros have a nut width of 43mm, which is terrible for a fingerstyle guitar. I recently tried the Eastman E1OOSS-SB and the neck was like a baseball bat, thick C-shape and the nut was 43mm. This guitar has a wider nut (45mm), which is great but I wouldn’t mind an even wider one like you see on more expensive and more traditional parlours.

What I find very strange is that the serial number field on the label inside the guitar is left blank- so no serial number and also the label doesn’t say the country of origin, which is China. It only says “Built by hand in our Stanford custom shop”.

When it comes to sound it has very prominent mid and high frequencies and very quiet lows I feel. Even my 100 euro Yamaha classical, which has laminate sides and back has a better bass response. I’m a bit disappointed by that but I guess the more expensive version which has rosewood back and sides has a better bass response. I just have to learn to pluck the bass strings stronger, the overall sound is actually really nice, at par with much more expensive guitars.

The guitar comes without a case but it was sent to me well packed. It makes me very anxious when they send acoustic guitars in cardboard boxes so I really wish it was sold with a hard case. They could at least make it an option.

I wish the Stanford brand would be better at marketing, I wish they would have a dedicated website and I wish more details would be provided about the guitars, also on the Thomann website – like the body dimensions, country of origin and so on.

All in all I’m satisfied with my purchase, I feel this instrument is really well built and has a good price!

Qualité irréprochable. Guitare préparée (réglage) super. Intonation, action, bois, bracing (X bracing scalloped). Qualité/prix conforme à mes attentes.
Pour ceux qui, comme moi, sont de petite taille et qui trouvent les dreadnoughts trop grande, cette taille parlor est impeccable. Et contrairement à ce qu'on entend, une parlor n'est pas que pour le blues. Celle-ci a une résonance extraordinaire pour sa taille.
Marque d'origine Allemande mais soigneusement fabriquée en Chine, permet de prendre conscience de la qualité et de cesser de "snobber" les instruments de musique venant de Chine.