Fine Guitar Consultants Guitar List 4

All that Jazz!
2002 Josep Melo EM3 Supreme
Here is an inspired combination: A chambered solid body jazz guitar with a European design flair and an homage to James D'Aquisto. It is a meticulously made guitar. The neck is rock stable, the sound is clean and clear, and FGC has dialed in the set-up so that you can forget about the details and just make music! The luthier, Josep Melo of Spain, was heavily influenced by "... his Masters James D'Aquisto and Jose Luis Romanillos." This is ready to record, tour with, or play on in your music room. According to the seller, "... (This one is) as good as guitars I have owned made by Andersen, Buscarino, Borys or Moll." A single neck-mounted Bartolini pickup with passive electronics employs a 3-position coil tap switch, allowing a variety of tone combinations. The EM3 is small and light in weight. The 24-fret neck makes it easy to play music effortlessly. The lower bout measures 14". The Depth of this thinline guitar is 1-3/8". Multiple wood purfling separates the European Spruce top from the flame Maple back and sides. An adjustable-wedge Ebony bridge matches the pickguard, which holds the Ebony volume and tone knobs. A gorgeous Ebony tailpiece which, with its cutout orbs adding to design--seems to reduce the mass, adding functional improvement in one brilliant stroke! The scale length is 25" and nut width is 1-13/16". A Maple neck with Ebony center strip has an adjustable truss rod, an Ebony fingerboard, and is fitted with well dressed frets. The Tuners are 18:1 gold-plated Grover super rotomatics with Ebony knobs. High-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finishes off this very cool and transportable instrument. Near-new condition. As always, click on the thumbnail photo to the right of the description to see all the details.
$4,800


1999 Omega Mini-Jumbo MJ02 Custom SN#0281 Englemann Spruce over gorgeous Cocobolo back and sides. The back is a 2-piece unusual bookmatch that features a curly half-sawn center portion that turns to quartersawn at the edge. The rich reddish chocolate colors contrast with natural maple bindings throughout, accented with a small black/white line as a transition to the Cocobolo. Mother of Pearl Art Nouveau inlays tastefully decorate an ebony fingerboard. Abalone purfed body edging matches the soundhole ring. This narrow-waisted mini-jumbo has a full rumbling-thunder tonality. Sustain that lasts as long as you care to linger. It is balanced, even, powerful and elegant to the eye. Rounded contours compliment a beautiful design that is also functional in adding a bit more soundboard in the critical lower bout area. Medium strings with low action allows for an easy feel with tone and volume to spare! An onboard Fishman pickup tests out to be balanced and natural. Compensated Micarta saddle with bone nut. FGC has done a maximum set up on this guitar, dressing frets to permit the lower action. Ready for adoption, it is a solid value. $5,800 with deluxe Ameritage case

1999 Michael Lewis "Mariposa" s.n. OR123 Those who own Michael Lewis flattops treasure the solid feel and easy playability he brought to these instruments. Now focusing on archtops and mandolins, this Lewis acoustic guitar will be one of the last of its kind for a number of years. Totally even, balanced, and easy to strum or pick, this is a butterfly story if I ever heard one: As this guitar was near completion, the very old spruce top was nicked by a chisel accidentally. Lewis refused to destroy a great soundboard...and found a beautiful solution in the form of an inlaid pearl butterfly--turning accident into art! Nicely quartered East Indian back and sides makes the tone of this guitar richly reverberant without overpowering. The decor is Martinesque with the Lewis Art Deco flair for design nicely superimposed. Pearl logo, pearl inlaid ebony pins...pearl back strip and rosette ring--all tastefully packaged. This man is a maker of elegant guitars. The easy feel and smooth, delicious tone help make this an exceptionally fine guitar. This one is vibrant and alive. (Our specialty!) $5,400

Beautiful Blonde! SOLD 2003 Stephen Marchione Neck-Through Electric Looks are secondary to serious players. That said, when a nature-lover meets this "real-to-the-roots" blonde, there will be some fast action well into the night. O.K., so I sound like a cheap "detective novel"...Unless you send for this guitar, you may not get to experience an "ultimate" electric guitar set-up. All the factors here separate the manufactured "floaty" necks from the razor sharp stability of a fine hand made instrument. The locking Sperzel tuners function efficiently. The neck angle is set perfectly in relation to all break angles from nut to individual saddles. The crowning glory is a fret job that is executed with precision. This enables the action to be set much lower without buzzes when plugged through your amp. Marchione has the electric guitar figured out. Proprietary hardware of high quality is overseen by Marchione personally. In the maker's own words: "I've been building recording quality custom guitars for New York's professional players for the past decade. Currently, you can hear my electric guitars in the Broadway show "The Lion King" and on Sony recording artists Bang On A Can's new CD "Music for Airports." The Neck-Through guitar has a fat neck tone and long ringing sustain. My building process assures you that the sound quality, both clean and distortion, far exceeds a standard electric's ability. I make the body from Archtop grade Quilted Maple which I bookmatch to either side of the neck. The neck, a three piece Rock Maple laminate with an African Ebony fingerboard, is ultra stable and very fast playing thanks to the hand cut neck contour and smooth fretwork. I have built over 300 recording level instruments and back in my repair days I brought countless stock and factory custom shop electrics up to recording standards. I think the Marchione Neck-Throughs are exceptional electric guitars and I think you will too." A note from Richard: "This guitar should make you look at the notion of owning one quality guitar--then selling off some mediocrity in your collection of serious playing instruments. You may already be a better player than you know--held back by a guitar that fights you mechanically every step of the way. Call me to discuss your music and where you plan to go from here. I am a music teacher and I am about the business of matching each player with the right guitar. The help is here for the asking." $6,500 SOLD


2001 Sexauer FT-000-45 "Made for the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, this instrument is loud, with a quick attack and a woody resonance that is ideal for ragtime or other fingerstyle guitar techniques. The "pre-WWII" feel of this one of-a-kind light-bodied, wider spaced wonder caught the Ragtime part of my soul and took me right down the road to Sedalia. The Honduran Mahogany neck has a fossil ivory nut measuring 1 13/16", and is topped with a Honduran Rosewood headplate and gold Waverly tuners. The Macassar Ebony fingerboard shows elegant flash with pink abalone pre-war 45 inlays. The bridge is also carved from Ebony and shows off the lovely carved fossil ivory bridge pins and saddle. An Adirondack Spruce top sends its powerful message to a flexible Honduran Rosewood back (with matching sides). Green abalone rosette and top edge treatment. The tone is slightly dry, richly reverberant and perfectly balanced. Ideal for thick fingertips on a larger hand, or average hands that appreciate the wider string spaces for articulating with a classical feel. Distinctly Sexauer by design, it fits neatly in its plush 000 Harptone case. A Pick-Up The World "Air Core" under saddle passive pickup is installed in the instrument." --Richard $8,800 with hard case.

2000 Klein Model L-45.7 s.n.#S4/053 This Klein-designed guitar built by his partner Steve Kauffman, features natural Sitka Spruce over Claro Walnut back and sides. The guitar may hit you first as a striking piece of Contemporary art. Serious art collectors often pay more for a fine sculpture that cannot be enjoyed on as many levels as this exciting and very musical instrument! When you pick this guitar up, you'll notice how light in weight it is. Next, when you sit down with it, most of you will find the guitar surprisingly comfortable to hold. The biggest surprise of all is the sound. You expect a big sound from the looks of this one--and it's even larger--yet balanced and even. The tone is crisp, rich and clear. It is so responsive, that a lighter touch can make it sing delicately. Then, for contrast, rip in and you have the power of a Ferrari to thrill and stun yourself, friends, and audiences. If this guitar intrigues you, come to San Diego to play it. As an alternative, we can ship it to you anywhere in the world. $12,900

2004 Gary Zimnicki Short Scale Whether you take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry or take the stage in your mind...this short scale instrument (24.2"), facilitates country blues bending perfectly. Its beautifully decorated Spruce top with finely purfed detail measures 15" at the lower bout, and 11.25" across the upper. The nut is 1 3/4". Fiddle back Maple back and sides add to its rich looks. The dry cherry to gold sunburst is a happy and stunning backdrop for the tasteful pearl ornamentation. Design-wise, this achievement of artistic balance is not easy to pull off! Somehow, Zimnicki succeeds in pleasing the eye by adding crisp delineation between pearl and colored woods. Though acoustic all the way, I would not hesitate to add a pickup system to get this baby ready for the stage or home acoustic amp rig. We can talk pickup systems when you are ready to choose this one. Pearlized Imperial style tuner buttons on gold Grover machines seem just right, fitting in for design, while feeling functional and smooth. This is an easy to play guitar with a perceived value that far exceeds its price! $5,000




More Fine Guitars for Sale (a partial listing of guitars on hand... please call for others offered confidentially.) For all types of instruments shipping in soon, click here to read the "New Items Coming In Soon" page.
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From Our Sample Gallery...2003 Fleishman Instruments Harp Guitar Exploring the possibilities of this instrument is a musical kick in the pants. When it is in your lap, you will be amazed at how intuitive and natural this instrument will feel if you posess intermediate or better guitar playing skills. Harry Fleishman is one of the top guitar designers in the US. It is our honor to be his exclusive representative. This unique harp guitar (no two Fleishmans are exactly alike) bears Harry's signature dual top. Says Harry, "I use many two-wood combos, including two different spruces, etc, mainly for the richer harmonic possibilities. I say possibilities because it would only be hype to say that this truly makes each guitar better. Many, many more great guitars have been made with one top wood; I enjoy the aesthetic, tonal, and humor aspects of these tops." The Koa back and sides Harry has known personally, having air dried it for nearly 20 years. Harry continues: "The fingerboard and bridge are very old Brazilian. The access panel door is Birdseye Brazilian RW from some veneer I got from a friend just before he died. I have a few more pieces, but it is pretty rare stuff...The soundholes add up to a relatively normal size hole, with an emphasis on cavity-size to hole-size for bass responsiveness. However, the bass is very flat in response; not boomy. Each hole has its own lower resonance than the combination, and they are each different, leveling off the bass rather than giving it a single sharp bass peak (see Helmholtz). The access panel allows voicing as well as access to electronics should they be added (see Abe Wechter). The neck adjustment is via the access panel, as is the neck pitch and yaw. I have included a diagram to explain the neck adjustment mechanics. The main idea for me is to separate the function of the saddle from the function of the neck. The saddle sets the attack transient of the string; the neck sets the action. Therefore, if you like a higher saddle for the voice it gives, but a low action, you can have both. The frame around the heel covers the gap where the neck is not connected to the body. The gap below the fingerboard is supported by graphite bars so that the fingerboard extension is solid like a jazz guitar, but not glued to the top. Although it contradicts much of what has been written in the past, separating the neck from the body seems to have no negative effects. If anything, this separation improves clarity and reduces unwanted wolf notes. The frets are quatrospherical (ooooh) and allow a bit wider playing area for the same neck spacing. The multi-scale fingerboard, uses radiused frets which do not converge, upon a radiused fingerboard. Each string utilizes the optimum scale length for the desired voice, balancing the sweetness of the trebles with the profound power and clarity of the basses..." The harp strings can be metal-wrapped classical nylon or bronze. The guitar strings are phosphor bronze. I have ordered another similar instrument (it will be a bit different) for completion in about October, 2005. If you are interested in having one for yourself, call me. My father used to say, "You know, you only go around once...and if you play your cards right...Once is enough!" --Richard $11,000 with hard case (for this one...the next one will be priced higher due to increased costs)

1992 James A. Olson SJ Guitar s.n. #645 "I spent some time on the phone with James Olson recently. I complimented him on how this 11-year-old Olson small jumbo guitar has matured so nicely and held up so well. It certainly has been well cared for; and it certainly doesn't hurt that the seller has permitted us to go all the way with a current FGC set-up that dials this guitar in for the road. The action is low, with no buzzing for light to medium attack with medium gage strings. The nut is 1 13/16". This instrument embodies pretty much the same specs as the the one James Taylor fell in love with some years ago. This Western Red Cedar over Indian Rosewood is a testiment to what has fed the rise of the Olson Guitar craze. Jim Olson is truly a humble man whose time is challenged with demand for his guitars, which continues in spite of his recent doubling of his prices! Fortunately for you, neither Fine Guitar Consultants, nor our seller, intends to be greedy about pricing the resale of this guitar. Yes, it is likely the most reasonably priced Olson on the market for its beautiful condition, right now; yes, it will likely continue to rise in value. What our generous client and us have in common, though, is a love for music and an appreciation for what an inspiring guitar can do for a player. Our client is working with us to reshape and upgrade his entire array of player instruments. This one is now redundant among the guitars he owns. So, lets hear from a player who is ready for a lifetime guitar and needs a break on reaching for the brass ring."--Richard $11,500 with tweed case