The Legacy Doubletop embodies a modern German double-top ideal. It aims for smooth, darkly coloured trebles and a velvety projection, the sound many guitarists associate with iconic performers. You can choose it with a cedar top or a spruce top, and both are available with a 64 cm scale.
This guide explains the idea behind the Legacy, how it is finished, how the two versions sound, what the shorter versions offer and where you can hear it in concert.
What Defines the Legacy
The Legacy is voiced with a clear emphasis on warmth and balance. It gives a rich, rounded response even when your nails are not in perfect condition, and it keeps producing sonorous tones where other guitars turn thin. Its response is immediate and its dynamic range wide, which makes it forgiving and expressive at the same time.
Its power is striking, yet the volume is always shaped by musicality and control. The Legacy is a double top, the construction behind the strong output of many modern concert guitars. Our double-top guide explains how such a soundboard works.
Finish and Equipment
The Legacy is the only model in our line that is finished entirely in French polish, the traditional standard of high-end classical guitar making. Shellac brings out the tonal depth and the visual elegance of the woods. The back and sides are Indian rosewood, and the guitar has Der Jung tuners and Knobloch EDC 34.0 strings. It is supplied with a black fibreglass case that matches its understated look. The full-size version has a 650 mm scale and a 52 mm nut.
The Legacy Doubletop Cedar
The cedar version has a dark, rounded voice with remarkable weight and character. Its tonal core is full and satisfying and fills large spaces with ease. The trebles are lyrical and refined, react quickly to the right-hand attack and stay clearly articulated even at pianissimo. The cedar Legacy gives you full control over colour and expression in repertoire of every period.
The Legacy Doubletop Spruce
The spruce version offers excellent sustain and clarity, qualities that are hard to achieve in an instrument of such volume. It does more than play loud. It projects with intention and musical shape, and it gives you a great deal of scope to explore tone colour and develop your own voice. That makes it a strong partner for the concert stage as well as for refined practice.
Cedar or Spruce?
Choose cedar for a dark, weighty voice with lyrical trebles and quick reactions. Choose spruce for sustain, clarity and projection with a clear musical outline. Both share the same warmth and forgiving response that define the Legacy. Our article on spruce versus cedar explains the general differences.
Shorter Scale Versions
The Legacy is available with a 64 cm scale and a 50 mm nut. The shorter string length gives a notably comfortable playing experience without restricting the music. It is not only meant for players with smaller hands. It equally suits advanced performers who want freedom and control in demanding repertoire with wide stretches.
Our guide to classical guitar scale length helps you choose.
Heard in Concert
The Legacy has been chosen by several concert guitarists for our channel. René Izquierdo played a whole online concert on it, described in our article René Izquierdo in concert at Siccas Guitars. Ricardo Gallén plays Bach's Prelude BWV 998 on the Legacy, and Dale Kavanagh plays Calata from Carlo Domeniconi's Trilogy, featured in our portrait of Carlo Domeniconi.
Who the Legacy Doubletop Is For
The Legacy is for players who perform and who want a powerful double top with a warm, dark and refined voice, a French-polished finish and a forgiving response that stays rich under less than perfect conditions. If you want a double top with fan bracing and a very comfortable neck, compare the Creation Doubletop. If you are drawn to the Spanish tonal ideal in a double top, see the Synthesis Doubletop.
Set Up in Karlsruhe
Siccas Luthiers is our own line of classical guitars, founded by the brothers Mirco and Manuel Sicca, whose late father Mario Sicca was a soloist, a professor at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule, a luthier and a collector. The models are developed in-house by a team of experienced luthiers and players. Each Siccas Luthiers guitar undergoes a careful setup and final inspection in our workshop in Karlsruhe before being shipped to our customers. You are welcome to try the guitars in our showroom in Karlsruhe.
The Other Models in the Line
Siccas Luthiers currently has eight models. Besides the Legacy Doubletop these are the Origin Lattice, Recital Traditional, Recital Contemporary, Halo Traditional, Creation Doubletop, Continuum Lattice and the Synthesis Doubletop. Our overview of Siccas Luthiers guitars explains the idea behind the line, and our guide to fan-braced, double-top and lattice guitars sets out how the three ways of building a soundboard differ.
