Beautiful & Unusual Classical Guitars - Episode 4: 'Newark' Christian Koehn
Welcome the 2016 'Newark' classical guitar by German luthier Christian Koehn. A fabulous beauty. Read on to learn more about this fabulous guitar and its maker.
A fabulous front view of the Newark 2016 model.
Introduction
Christian Koehn - a luthier from Germany has been making guitars professionally since he graduated at the top of the International Guitar Making School course in 2006 in Newark at the Newark College. Interestingly, the guitar featured in this article is named after the college and area that offers the guitar making course. Koehn was the recipient of the prestigious Ashley Mark Publishing Prize for being the best of the best in his graduation class.
Since that time Christian has gone on to setup his own workshop back in his birthplace - Berlin.
The guitar featured in this article is a custom order. Not too much is revealed about the woods used in its construction but all I can say is that the result is breathtaking to say the least.
Striking Features:
- Stunning aged tonewoods
- Hand-carved rosettes and headstocks
Easy to see the headstock, soundport & beveled cutaway.
- Soundport
An awesome view of the huge soundport.
- Beveled cutaway
Superb look at the beveled cutaway allowing for easier playability past the 12th fret.
- French polish with shellac
- Traditional tooling used in construction
- Traditional Antonio Torres design
That aged look is amazing!
How to get one for yourself?!?!
Christian has a 12 to 18 month waiting time which isn't too bad considering some luthiers have waiting lists of almost a decade! I reckon get in quick before Christian's guitar list fills up! Here's how:
Christian has easy payment terms of just 10% to secure a guitar with a further 10% payable when he starts the build (30% for custom builds).
Here's where Christian studied guitar-making if you're keen to have a go for yourself:
Check out my other articles of beautiful & unusual classical guitars here.
As always,
Let your fingers fly!
Beautiful & Unusual Classical Guitars - Episode 2: Mangore 'White Tiger'
Every now again we see a guitar that captures our imagination and the White Tiger from Bellucci Guitars is definitely one of those! Read on to find out more about this stunning guitar creature.
Introduction
Bellucci Guitars headed by Renato Bellucci is known for making stunning guitars made from exotic woods and incorporating new design features like beveled cutaways, elevated fingerboards, soundports, & tailpiece bridges. Something else that they have also built a culture around is their use of unusual woods & combining them in unique ways.
In this article I will be focusing on just one of their designs as their company has too many wonderful classical guitars to cover in just one article!
The 'White Tiger' Classical Guitar
Back and Sides: Black & White Ebony
Top - Spruce
Scale Length: 630mm + Indented/Beveled Cutaway for access to the upper frets.
Violin Type Bridge made from Ebony
All headstocks need 3 Birmanian Rubies mounted in 18kt gold don't they?
The ebony armrest alla Greg Smallman in all its glory.
A nice view of the Artec Edge-Z Preamp
Full Specifications at a glance:
- Back and Sides - Black & White Ebony
- Top - Spruce
- Scale Length - 630mm
- Preamp - Artec Edge-Z
- Carbon fiber truss rod
- Indented/Beveled cutaway
- Armrest - Ebony
- Gold plated tuners
- 22 frets
- Radius fingerboard
- Bridge and Neck nuts - Buffalo horn
My Opinion
Sadly I haven't played this guitar and I probably never will as it was custom-made for a lucky gentleman from the USA but I can say that it looks stunning and is has some wonderful features that I'd certainly love to have on my custom-made guitar (when I get one).
Leave a comment and let me know what you think and make sure you check out my other articles on modern classical guitar design.