The Modern Lute

This build was inspired by a conversation with a friend from Asia - just bouncing around ideas for a new design: to take the shape and aesthetics of a traditional instrument and catapult it into the present. The overall shape echoes that of traditional lutes - the ebony pickup cover mimics the sound hole and the elongated headstock fits the Japanese aesthetic sensibility with the barrel tuners reinforcing the look.

The Cedar body and Mahogany neck block are heavily carved ad relieved. The body is actually quite thin and wraps around the player’s body. It feels solid and comfortable with a good balance. The Mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard is set deeply into the neck block and fastened with two machine screws. I have found that this way of attaching a neck to the body provides excellent sustain and tonal dynamics, as well as unparalleled stability.

The tone is quite versatile due to the possibility of seamlessly mixing the Häussel humbucker (which has a very warm tone) and the GraphTech Ghost Piezos in the wraparound tailpiece. The Piezos have two voicing, sort of Gibson vs. Martin. The humbucker can also be split and has a tone control which gives some additional sound shaping options. Tuners are Hipshot open back locking with barrel knobs.