Californian guitar builders Sunset Guitars have announced three new electric guitars and some new technology.
The guitars include The Performer, a chambered Alder body with a highly figured Maple top; The Soloist, a 13” semi-hollowbody with Mahogany body and Spruce top; The Artist, a 15” semi-hollowbody with Mahogany body and Spruce top.
Each of them have multi-piece Maple necks (think archtops, for example), double cutaway body shapes, and the heel starting at the 17th fret for high fret access. The guitars are built in the USA, with the tops and bodies hand-carved from select grade woods.
The guitars also include new proprietary electronics – dubbed “Multi-Voice Magnetics” and “Coil Notch Electronics.” Sunset Guitars founder Leon White explains, “We’ve found a way to control the resonant peak and frequency response from inside each pickup, using passive controls. Early testers all confirmed that the guitars have a wide variety of sounds based upon these technologies. A bridge pickup, for example, might have a thick bluesy kind of sound, a cleaner crisp rhythm sound, and a mild ‘quack’ sound – all in the same guitar.”
The pickups and electronics are tuned for each model to exploit the acoustic profile of that specific model. The guitars also feature very long tenon necks. “Our neck tenon is as wide as the neck at the heel and extends all the way into the bridge pickup cavity. This helps exploit the transfer of sound from the neck to the body and produces a more even volume from string-to-string,” according to White.
Prices for the Soloist (pictured) are $3200 for the standard and $4200 for the Deluxe which comes with 2 “Slightly Hot” Pickups with Multi-Voice Magnetics, Ebony Fingerboard with Dot Inlay, Master Volume and Master Treble Control, Custom 5 position blend control for the ‘middle’ toggle position, and One Coil Notch Control for Each Pickup.
For more information go to sunsetguitars.com
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