Cello Nylon string

2012-08-15 16:00:32

Last year I was asked to build a Nylon string guitar for a Client who planned to take it on his yacht across the pacific. We built a beautiful X10 with quilted maple veneer on top. A really nice guitar and the customer must have thought so because he soon after came to me and requested the guitar you see here.

I had a very short brief, “I want a nylon string guitar and I want it to look like a Cello” That was it, the interpretation was up to me. Thats the perfect brief for me, lots of creative freedom. It took a while for the design to come to me and it evolved during construction but the result was everything it could and should have been.

Its got a solid cedar top with carbon fibre lattice bracing which gives it a loud and responsive voice and the contrast between the cedar and carbon gives a great modern classic twist. The headstock is a real eye catcher and is carved out of a solid block made up of over 100 layers of carbon. It was an incredible amount of work but is the key to the overall design. In it we used Peg heads geared friction tuners to give it that cello look and they also function great.

The bridge and tailpiece were custom made from carbon and I created a special ball joint to hold the tailpiece that gives it a unique and special look.

I delivered it to the client in Santa cruz a few months ago nervously awaiting his reaction. Had I captured what he had in mind?

Well Im working on a third guitar for him right now so I guess that means yes.

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