GABON EBONY B&S,
Lattice
Braced SINKER REDWOOD DOUBLE TOP Contreras style, African
Padauk bindings, 16" radiused Ebony fingerboard, violin tie, armrest
& bridge.
ADJUSTABLE TRUSS ROD, Double
Soundport in upper & lower bouts. 4-BAND EQUALIZER
DIGITAL TUNER with Canon plug and 1/4 inch plug + Digital Tuner,
Buffalo horn nut and saddle. 640mm fret spacing. Embossed leather
case included. JEWEL !! Every
time I build a Zorro model I feel as enthusiastic as a young child. I was
8 when I first started playing the guitar in Taranto Italy. At the same
time I was hooked on my all time hero The Zorro, played by Guy Williams
in the legendary TV series. The Masked man that would mark villains with
a Z made my imagination fly with every episode. It was quite natural
for me to want to commemorate those magical years with a guitar model
that would honor this great childhood hero that made justice with his Sword.
I am certain that The Zorro would use this beauty for a guitar to serenade
his sweethearts! Everything on this babe is reminiscent of the Zorro: The
selection of wood, the mother of pearl speckled rosette, the ebony details,
the dark Sinker Redwood top... I mounted 2 very important extras to make
her as complete as possible for every possible musical scenario. The 4-band
Equalizer with a double output(Canon plug
and 1/4 inch plug) with a magnificent Digital Tuner. The adjustable truss
rod, which is a gadget that especially those coming from the Acoustic guitar
world will find useful, will allow you to keep the action the same on humidity
related changes in the action.. You may never use it, but should you ever
need it, it is great to have.
Playing Cavatina,
was a pleasure. The bass is clear powerful and very well defined and the
melody is amazingly sweet and clear. The Lattice bracing brings out the
clearest trebles and a superb separation of voices while the Double top
augments punch and projection. Gabon created the deepest basses a player
can dram of. Long live The Zorro !
Recording of Gladiator using
"The Zorro"
PC video Hear this
GABON EBONY B&S,
Lattice Braced
Double top, SINKER REDWOOD TOPTOP
Mac & iPad video Hear this
GABON EBONY B&S,
Lattice Braced
Double top, SINKER REDWOOD TOP
The double top, was developed
and introduced by Master Luthier Manuel Contreras the II at the end
of the 70s. The word "Tapa" in Spanish translates to top in English but
it refers to the back of the instrument. Therefore, Contreras doble tapa
is actually a "Double back" (and sides). The Doble tapa allows the back
and sides to be much more sturdy and reflect sound on the inner walls
of the body with much more intensity and speed. This makes the sound boom
majestically.
Sinker logs, are pulled from
the bottom of lakes and rivers. Sometimes, scuba divers are needed to achieve
the extraction. Most of these logs are hundreds of years old (In
one of the pictures above, you can see that the tree was cut with an hatchet).
Due to a series of factors (The logs were too big and heavy to be pulled
out of the rivers or the logs were caught by currents and were sucked to
the bottom) these logs were trapped by the muddy buttons of these
water beds and this created like a time capsule where the wood was preserved
in fantastic humidity conditions that made the wood season in a slow natural
way during many centuries. Some of the logs are selected for musical instruments
construction. The sound that these woods produce is unique and the grain
has a beautiful coloration that changes according to the type of mud present
in the water bed.
The lattice is a concept
based on the A frame of grand pianos. The back and sides are kept rigid
by means of a sturdy A shaped frame and the top is thinned as much as possible
to allow the top to vibrate generously. Lattice delivers a lot of volume
and tremendous clarity.
Radiused or flat fingerboard? The radiused fingerboard has been
around the acoustic and the electric guitar since day one. The same is
true for most instruments of the Stringed family of instruments (violas,
violins cellos, bass). Radiusing (image above) makes barre and left hand
stopping A LOT easier. The only drawback is that you will NEVER want to
play a flat fingerboard after that. If you are having your custom
guitar built, I am all pro radiusing the fingerboard. The standard
fingerboard is flat.
ADJUSTABLE TRUSS ROD
640mm or 650 mm?
GABON EBONY The wood that
defines BLACK
The images
and video depict the actual guitar being sold.
