Luthier Andrew James White who apparently hails from somewhere around Morgantown, WV (he doesn’t exactly say where he is on his website), has, on his list of artists who play his instruments Craig D'Andria, Andy Mckee and Kaki King. That’s pretty impressive right there but, then, so are his instruments. The striped ebony headplate is inlaid with a blonde wooden “W” with a line through the center section to create an imbedded letter “A” for Andrew. This particular model, his Style E, is made from very closely grained European spruce (no surprise to us – it is close, parallel and suffused with cross-silking), having the round soundhole positioned on the upper treble bout but also having an angled, oblong port on the upper bass side. It is made with a quilted maple on the back and sides, and found in a grain pattern closer to flame maple on the nine (!) piece laminated neck. The builder calls the finish orange/amber sunburst, and that’s what it looks like. Top, side and back purflings are thin and cleanly inlaid “black-crème-black” which pattern is mitered on the bottom side to comprise the outline of a rectangular end piece.
This guitar measures 40 ½” in total length and just under 16” in body width at the lower bout. At the waist it measures 8 ¾” making the body shape not exactly a conventional grand auditorium – but a unique, slope shoulder grand auditorium variation. Its upper bout measures around 11 1/8”, the depth at the bottom side is 4 1/8th” and the scale length is long at 25.5”. It has a nut width of 1 ¾” and a string spacing at the bridge of 2 3/8th”. The unbound ebony fingerboard with its polished ebony binding has no fingerboard inlays but it has small pearl side dots. This guitar shows some finish checking on the back, but not much. There is the occasional small scratch or sign that it was held and played but by and large this is closer to excellent plus condition than it is to “excellent.” We find this instrument to be extremely fine sounding, and easy playing. This builder, with whom we had not been familiar prior to seeing this previously owned instrument, makes an impressive first impression.