This is a 17″ archtop with conventional construction, parallel bracing and a floating pickup. This guitar dates back to 2012 (it has my old peghead design), so it has reached a very stable condition.
As nitro lacquer sinks a little with time, I buffed it recently. It looks gorgeous now!
The back is carved from select curly maple, the same wood as the sides. The top is carved old select European spruce and the neck is European maple. Its scale length is 25 1/2″ (648 mm) and the nut is 1 11/16″ (43 mm) wide.
The bindings, on body and neck, are curly etimoe, a wood that some take for tortoise plastic when seen at a distance.
The fittings are all ebony, quite classical, but the tailpiece has been designed to electrically connect the strings to ground, as I do with all my guitars. The stiff finger rest is attached at one single point, the side of the neck.
This guitar has enough room below the finger rest to fit two wheel potentiometers (volume and tone) with their correct rotation direction. This is possible because the chassis where they have been installed turns them upside down. The frets are thin Gold Evo alloy. They are extremely hard and will stand many years of intensive playing without needing any redressing. They don’t contain nickel, so they are hypoallergenic too.
The thin frets will be more adequate for jazz musicians who don’t use many bendings in their playing styles. The action is extremely low. Regarding the strings, I installed the ubiquitous D’Addario EJ16 (12-53, phosphor bronze).
Bronze strings are great for acoustic archtops; flat wound strings are great when it comes to amplify them, but they don’t work very well when it comes to emphasize the acoustic tone, which I consider the main attractive of this guitar.The finish is nitrocellulose, the machines are Schaller Vintage and it comes with the best case, a Hiscox.
Be the first to comment