Avalon S35 Performer: Handmade Classical Guitar from Ireland
An extraordinary nylon-string guitar, handcrafted in Northern Ireland. Cedar, Indian rosewood, exquisite detail and a voice that rewards every movement of the fingers.
Some guitars announce themselves with volume. Others do it with elaborate decoration, outrageous timber figuring or a price tag that makes your bank manager quietly leave the room.
The Avalon S35 Performer Series Rosewood/Cedar Nylon takes a different approach.
It asks you to sit down. To play something slowly. To listen to what happens between the notes. And then, somewhere around the third or fourth phrase, you realise you've stopped thinking about the guitar entirely.
That is an extraordinarily difficult thing to achieve.
Handcrafted in Northern Ireland by the luthiers at Avalon Guitars, the S35 Performer is a beautifully considered nylon-string acoustic-electric guitar built around a solid cedar soundboard, Indian rosewood back and sides, a Brazilian mahogany neck and a collection of appointments that reveal themselves gradually rather than demanding applause.
There's ebony beneath your fingers, Paua abalone around the soundhole, precision Schaller tuners and an LR Baggs Anthem system ready to take that lovely acoustic voice onto a stage or into a recording session.
But the real attraction isn't the ornamentation.
It's what happens when you play it.
Discover the Avalon S35 Performer Series at Musicmaker Dublin.
Avalon Guitars: The Art of Making Something Slowly
In an industry increasingly obsessed with speed, volume and efficiency, Avalon remains gloriously committed to a rather old-fashioned idea.
A guitar should be built by people who understand wood, vibration and the subtle relationship between structure and sound. At Avalon's workshop in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, instruments are handcrafted by skilled luthiers who select their materials carefully and shape each guitar with its eventual musical response in mind. There is a particular romance to this, certainly, but there's also some extremely practical engineering.
An acoustic guitar is a system of vibrating components. The top moves in response to the strings, the bracing influences how that movement is distributed, and the body contributes its own resonances and tonal colour. Tiny decisions matter.
The thickness of a soundboard. The stiffness of a brace. The mass of a bridge. The way the neck and body interact. These details influence how efficiently the instrument responds to the player's touch, how notes develop and how the guitar behaves across different registers. Avalon's approach is to give those decisions the time and attention they deserve.
The S35 belongs to the company's Performer Series, but don't mistake that name for an ordinary beginner's instrument. This is serious boutique craftsmanship, designed to be played rather than admired from a distance.
And we like that very much.
Solid Cedar: The Beauty of an Immediate Response
Let's talk about the soundboard. The Avalon S35 features a solid cedar top, and that choice tells you quite a lot about the musical personality the builders are pursuing.
Cedar has long been associated with fine classical guitars, particularly instruments prized for warmth, colour and sensitivity to a lighter touch.
Compared with the crisp, often more gradual response associated with spruce, cedar frequently offers a sense of immediacy. Notes can develop their character quickly, with a rounded attack and a beautifully rich harmonic texture. Of course, wood species alone never determines the sound of a guitar. Thickness, bracing, body geometry and the individual pieces of timber are enormously important. But in the right hands, cedar can be magnificent.
On the S35, it makes particular sense.
A gently plucked melody can speak with remarkable intimacy. Arpeggios emerge with a rounded, singing character, and subtle changes in right-hand position can reveal different shades of warmth and brightness. Move your fingers towards the bridge and the attack becomes more focused. Bring them closer to the soundhole and the sound softens. Change the angle of your fingertips and the instrument responds again.
This is the sort of guitar that encourages you to pay attention to the mechanics of your playing, not because it's unforgiving, but because it gives you something worthwhile in return.
And when a nylon-string guitar makes you want to play a familiar passage three different ways just to hear what happens, that's a very good sign.
Indian Rosewood: Depth, Definition and Musical Colour
The S35 pairs its cedar soundboard with Indian rosewood back and sides, a classic combination in high-quality nylon-string instruments.
Rosewood is valued for its density, stiffness and reflective properties, although the final sound depends on the entire instrument rather than one timber in isolation.
Here, the pairing is intended to bring a satisfying sense of depth and definition to cedar's warm, responsive character. Think about a passage with an independent bass line moving beneath a delicate melody. You want the bass notes to carry weight without turning everything into a warm, indistinct cloud. You want the upper register to remain clear, and you want the notes in the middle to have enough separation that the harmony can breathe.
That balance is particularly important on a classical guitar, where several musical voices often need to coexist beneath one pair of hands.
The S35's smaller S body shape contributes to its focused character, offering a comfortable playing experience and a voice that feels beautifully suited to intricate fingerstyle work. It's a compelling combination for classical repertoire, contemporary nylon-string arrangements, solo composition and recording sessions where detail matters more than brute force. There is also something deeply satisfying about an instrument that doesn't demand aggressive playing to reveal its character.
Sometimes the quietest notes tell you the most.
The Neck, the Ebony and the Details You Feel
A beautiful acoustic voice means very little if the instrument is awkward to play. Fortunately, Avalon has given the S35 a thoroughly considered set of appointments.
The Brazilian mahogany neck provides the foundation, while an ebony fingerboard offers a hard, durable playing surface with the smooth, precise feel players expect from a premium instrument. Ebony also appears on the bridge and headplate, creating a consistent visual language that complements the rosewood body.
These aren't merely decorative choices.
The bridge forms a crucial part of the connection between the strings and the soundboard. Its mass, stiffness and construction all contribute to how string energy is transferred into the top. The S35 also features a natural bone nut and saddle, traditional materials valued for their hardness and durability. Then there are the Schaller Grand Tune Hauser classical machine heads. Anyone who has spent time trying to tune a nylon-string guitar with mediocre hardware will appreciate the importance of a smooth, predictable tuning mechanism. Nylon strings naturally take time to settle, particularly when newly fitted, so good tuners are an absolute pleasure rather than an extravagant luxury. Avalon finishes the instrument with elegant rosewood bindings, a solid Paua abalone rosette and a mother-of-pearl Avalon logo.
The abalone catches the light beautifully, but the overall effect remains restrained.
Nothing feels thrown on simply to justify the price.
Dogal Mistralle Strings: A Properly Considered Setup
One detail that deserves attention is the S35's choice of strings.
Avalon fits this example with Dogal Mistralle High Tension nylon strings, a decision that complements the instrument's responsive construction. Higher-tension sets can offer a firmer feel beneath the fingers and a different balance of attack and control, although the actual response depends on string construction, scale length and the guitar itself. On a sensitive cedar-topped instrument, that firmer playing response can be especially appealing to guitarists who want precise articulation without losing warmth. It also highlights an important truth about acoustic instruments.
The strings aren't an afterthought. They're part of the system.
And when the guitar, strings and setup work together, the result can feel remarkably natural.
LR Baggs Anthem: Taking the S35 Beyond the Living Room
A fine classical guitar deserves to sound beautiful in the room.
But what happens when the room becomes a stage? The S35 answers that question with an LR Baggs Anthem pickup system, giving players a sophisticated way to amplify the instrument. The Anthem design combines an undersaddle pickup with an internal microphone approach, allowing the system to capture useful elements of both direct string response and the guitar's acoustic character.
That's particularly valuable with nylon strings.
An undersaddle pickup alone can provide clarity and feedback resistance, but players sometimes find that it emphasises attack at the expense of the instrument's natural body and air. Microphone information can help restore some of that acoustic detail, although careful setup and sound reinforcement remain essential.
For the S35, this makes the electronics much more than a convenient addition. It opens the door to live classical performance, contemporary fingerstyle sets, intimate singer-songwriter arrangements and recording situations where a reliable direct signal is useful. And crucially, the guitar remains an acoustic instrument first. The electronics are there to serve its voice.
Not replace it.
A Classical Guitar for Players Who Care About Touch
There is a misconception that a premium nylon-string guitar is only relevant to someone playing traditional classical repertoire.
That would be a terrible waste of a lovely instrument. Certainly, the S35 has all the ingredients to appeal to serious classical players: an expressive cedar soundboard, rosewood depth, ebony appointments and a responsive feel that rewards careful technique.
But consider what else a good nylon-string guitar can do.
Brazilian-influenced chord voicings. Gentle jazz arrangements. Contemporary fingerstyle pieces. Film-score textures. Songwriting sessions where steel strings feel too bright or percussive. Nylon strings bring a distinctive attack and harmonic character that can sit beautifully alongside vocals, piano, strings and percussion. And in a recording studio, a responsive instrument can be especially rewarding because microphones capture the details that might otherwise disappear in a busy room. The S35's voice encourages patience, space and deliberate phrasing.
Not every piece needs to be played faster. Not every chord needs to be struck harder.
Sometimes the most compelling thing a guitarist can do is let a note finish telling its story.
From the Musicmaker Workshop: Made Close to Home, Built to Travel
At Musicmaker, we've spent decades surrounded by guitars. We've seen extraordinary instruments arrive from workshops across the world, and we've developed a particular affection for builders who combine genuine craft with a clear musical purpose.
Avalon occupies a special place in that conversation.
Here is a manufacturer producing remarkable handmade guitars in Northern Ireland, demonstrating that some of the finest acoustic craftsmanship can be found remarkably close to home. The S35 Performer is a wonderful expression of that tradition.
Cedar warmth. Rosewood complexity. Precise detailing. Sophisticated amplification. And a voice that encourages you to slow down and actually listen.
If you're searching for a handcrafted classical guitar in Ireland, a premium nylon-string acoustic-electric or simply an instrument that responds beautifully to the smallest details of your playing, this is one worth discovering in person.
Visit us at Musicmaker, 29 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, and spend some time with it.
Free shipping around Ireland on orders over €15.
Or explore the instrument online:
Avalon S35 Performer Series Rosewood/Cedar Nylon — Musicmaker Ireland
Some guitars impress you in the first ten seconds.
The really interesting ones are still revealing themselves an hour later.
The Avalon S35 is very much our kind of interesting.
Musicmaker — Independent minds. Serious gear. Glorious noise.
