The Recital Contemporary takes the Recital idea into modern construction. It is a double-top concert guitar with lattice bracing and a soundport, developed within our Recital model line for players who want projection and an efficient response without giving up warmth and nuance. You can choose it with a cedar top or a spruce top.
This guide explains how the Recital Contemporary is built, how the two versions differ in sound, what the shorter version offers and where you can hear the model in repertoire.
How the Recital Contemporary Is Built
The soundboard is a double top, a sandwich of two thin wooden layers with a core of Nomex between them. Nomex is a very light honeycomb material, and the sandwich makes the top both stiff and light, which is the basis for the strong output of double-top guitars. In the cedar version both the outer top and the inner layer are cedar. In the spruce version the outer top is spruce and the inner layer is cedar.
Under the soundboard sits a lattice bracing made entirely of wood. It supports high responsiveness and structural lightness without costing clarity. A soundport in the upper bout lets you hear more of your own sound while you play, which gives you better control on stage.
The back and sides are Indian rosewood, the finish is polyurethane, and the guitar has Der Jung tuners and Knobloch EDC 34.0 strings. The full-size version has a 650 mm scale and a 52 mm nut and comes in a hardshell case.
The Recital Contemporary Cedar
With cedar outside and inside, the cedar version has a rich tonal complexity and pronounced warmth. What defines it is considerable projection and an efficient response. It gives you a wide dynamic palette with little effort and keeps its tone consistent at every volume.
The cedar voice is warm and forgiving under the right hand, with rounded trebles. Yet it offers enough resistance for assertive articulation when you want it. The sound fills a room with ease, with the presence you would expect from a much larger instrument, while staying intimate and balanced under your ear.
The Recital Contemporary Spruce
The spruce version combines a spruce outer top with a cedar inner layer. The result has more brilliance and a vibrant, singing quality, supported by excellent sustain and projection. The trebles are bright, clear and lively, and the instrument keeps a very high clarity in polyphonic repertoire.
The spruce top makes the guitar especially versatile across styles. It answers with lyrical sensitivity and balances power, nuance and dynamic range, so it adapts to very different programmes.
Cedar or Spruce?
Choose cedar if you want warmth, a forgiving right-hand response and rounded trebles that fill a room. Choose spruce if you want brilliance, a singing treble and maximum clarity between the voices. Our article on spruce versus cedar goes into the differences, and our double-top guide explains the construction in more detail.
Shorter Scale Version
The spruce Recital Contemporary is also available as the Recital Contemporary Spruce 64 cm with a 51 mm nut, a good choice for players with smaller hands. Its character stays consistent with the full-size version, clear, lyrical and dynamically responsive. Our guide to classical guitar scale length helps you choose.
Heard in Repertoire
Vera Danilina plays Yarn by Michael Abels on the cedar version. Dorotea Dolenec plays four of the Balkan Miniatures by Dušan Bogdanović on the spruce version, music with sharp rhythmic attacks that shows what the construction can do. Andrea Devitis plays Bach's Prelude BWV 999 on a Recital Contemporary.
Who the Recital Contemporary Is For
The Recital Contemporary is a concert guitar for players who perform, play with others or need their sound to carry in a room, and who want a modern construction. If you prefer a traditional build, the Recital Traditional is its counterpart in the same family. If you want a double top in a different voicing, compare the Creation Doubletop and 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 Recital Contemporary these are the Origin Lattice, Recital Traditional, Halo Traditional, Creation Doubletop, Legacy 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.
