Friday 31 May 2013

Bert Kwakkel luthier-built 12+12 string acoustic (with sympathetic strings)

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This highly unusual one-off luthier-built guitar by Bert Kwakkel is currently being listed for sale on Marktplaats.nl, a trading site based in The Netherlands, and is priced at € 2.250,00.

It is essentially a 12-string acoustic guitar (even though the main part of the guitar has only been strung with six strings in these photos) with 12 sympathetic strings situated inside the guitar's body. It's certainly a weird-looking instrument with that secondary headstock emerging from the shoulder of the guitar. I can only try to imagine what it might sound like; it's not going to be quite a sitar sound seeing as don't have any buzz bridges. Nevertheless, tune it in DADGAD or similar, and I can imagine the guitar could produce a fair imitation of a sitar.

Bert Kwakkel is a name unknown to me. Apparently this guitar dates back to the 1980s, and it has suffered a few cracks, which we are told have been expertly repaired.

Thanks to JAldo who brought this guitar to my attention via the Guitarz Facebook page.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

9 comments:

  1. Looks like someone's been inspired by Manzer's "Pikasso" guitar. (http://tinyurl.com/m5bb22b)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I thought that to start with too, but if this is 1980s wouldn't it have preceeded the Metheny guitar.

      Delete
  2. Have you seen this one?

    http://kenwilsonelt.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/metheny.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  3. Please wait a moment while I just tune my guitar. Hey, where's everybody gone?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Built in natural reverb you can tweak by changing the tuning. After all it's all a matter of finding the good frequency! If you play the second neck strings it's a built in tempura...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd say it was nearer to a swarmandal than a tampura.

      Delete
  5. hey guys. im a fellow guitarist and decided to create a tshirt design for the everyday rockstar. im crowdfunding it through teespring.com/everydayrockstar and was hoping your community could show it a little love if you like the design?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don't fancy putting new strings on it.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis