Friday, 25 May 2012

Vintage & Rare Guitar of the Week: Tao Phaeton futuristic hollow jazz guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
It's a swelteringly hot day here in Wales, and I don't feel much like making a meal over anything right now, so I'm going to be really lazy and copy and paste the details of this guitar straight from Belgian luthier Tao Guitar's page on Vintage & Rare:
This project started out as a cure for a friend & customer who was diagnosed with a very acute form of the G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome). We offered to make him a unique masterpiece that would both calm his illness and at the same time bring us the opportunity to build our dream guitar with a "carte blanche". The whole idea was to build a hollow jazz guitar that could handle high volume feedback in a more compact rounded ergonomic body with a solid body style sustain...

ORVILLE GIBSON’S "STYLE 03" GUITAR BEING ONE OF OUR FAVE GUITAR DESIGNS with its anthropomorphic visual and its experimental crafting method made it the most exotic vintage guitar in our eyes – some kind of mythical piece of craft, a milestone in Guitar History. This gave us the guiding conceptual direction for our "Phaeton".

As explained by Lewis Williams in the first 1903 catalog "front and back made in swelled shape by being carved, leaving the layer grain of the wood in the same position as in its natural growth, thus insuring strength, free vibration, and unusual sympathetic resonance" or "special relatedness and agreements of parts”.

OUR OTHER MAJOR INFLUENCE BEING AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN
In all its forms, car styling aesthetics are obvious here, from the two tone color scheme to the sound – holes bearing air intake visual reference, the whole thing breathing our love for the golden years of American Car Design.

The "Phaeton" name has always been synonymous with class and luxury in the automobile history.
(Weird capitalization seller's own).

If you're interested in owning your own Tao Phaeton,  contact the seller via Vintage & Rare.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1 comment:

  1. Thank goodness for carte blanche, G.A.S and sweltering Welsh afternoons eh? Just stunning. It's DOK ( Drool On Keyboard )

    "special relatedness and agreements of parts”.

    You don't say..? With all the focus on universal, interchangeable parts, this, a rare delight. Now go mass produce so I can afford one!

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