{"id":144505,"date":"2024-06-28T07:03:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=144505"},"modified":"2024-06-28T07:03:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:03:13","slug":"great-acoustics-tracy-chapmans-cherished-judy-threet-model-a-parlor-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-tracy-chapmans-cherished-judy-threet-model-a-parlor-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: Tracy Chapman\u2019s Cherished Judy Threet Model A Parlor Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How did a modest parlor guitar built on spec by a Canadian maker end up in the hands of a four-time Grammy winner? Serendipity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash back to 1999. After the Calgary-based luthier Judy Threet<\/a> finished one of her Model A creations with a Sitka spruce top, curly koa back and sides, and cocobolo fretboard, bridge, and headstock veneer, she dropped it off at her local music shop, where it sat for more than six months. With no takers, the luthier reclaimed her guitar. Later that year, while at an industry trade show, she gave it to a private seller to try his luck. He also struck out.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tracy-Chapman-with-Judy-Threet-guitar-Lebrecht-Music-Arts-Alamy-Stock-Photo\"
Tracy Chapman with Judy Threet Model A. Photo: Lebrecht Music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two years after Threet finished the Model A, Frank Ford, co-founder of Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, California, offered to sell it at his store. (An interesting aside: before becoming a luthier, Threet worked as a philosophy professor and discovered Gryphon while completing her doctorate at nearby Stanford University.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, Tracy Chapman wandered into Ford\u2019s store one morning looking for a small guitar. The artist explained that her dreadnought was starting to hurt her shoulder. A Gryphon employee picked Threet\u2019s Model A off the wall and put it into Chapman\u2019s hands, where it has remained ever since. In the April 2003 issue<\/a> of this magazine, Chapman described her cherished guitar as \u201csmall in size but very dynamic in sound.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the most exquisite acoustic guitar I\u2019ve ever played,\u201d says guitarist-composer Joe Gore, who has worked with Chapman for many years. \u201cIt\u2019s quite light; it almost feels like a Faberg\u00e9 egg, since it\u2019s so visually beautiful. Tones blossom from it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n