Of the modern, small shop luthiers, Dana Bourgeois is a really special guy, in my opinion.  If you're sick about tone, he is a master...one of those guys who can take a piece of top wood, tap it with his index finger and hold it to his ear, and just know what kind of guitar it'll make.  And then proceed to make one of it, extracting every bit of its potential, while wrapping it in unbelievably tasteful appointments. 

There's a little story to this one, as usual.  I'm told that Dana dined with the son of a master Japanese luthier, who was renowned for his classical guitars. The father had just passed, and the son apparently mentioned that he had some lovely Pao rosewood back and side sets, that Dana scooped up.  While Pao is a rosewood, it is very unique tonally, and is popular in classical guitars I guess.  He had a couple sets that were big enough for dreadnaughts and OMs, but was left with several pieces that were smaller in dimension.  Happily, these later appeared in some select 0- and 00-sized instruments from Dana's Maine shop.  This was one of the first, and when I walked into Acoustic Music in Guilford, CT and casually took it off the wall to play, I immediately fell in love with its tone.  I've been taught to recognize that all the elements of a guitar work together to make its tone, and here, the master-grade sitka top (not a tone wood I would generally rave about) somehow just interacts with the Pao rosewood in a magical way.  It's a rich, sustain-y sound, with lovely overtones, but it just doesn't sound like Brazilian or Indian Rosewood.  There's this secondary sustain or something, that is hard to describe.  But it's really something for finger-style play.

This one is tastefully outfitted with classic bindings, and a nice Zircote headstock veneer, and it has a perfectly selected pickguard in the case, if you're into such things.