Edwinson 2014 Zephyr Noir 00, and 2015 Consort Rojo 000

[theEdwinson]

The best fringe benefit of being a luthier is, there's always a nice guitar close by. I'm finding that it's increasingly important to stay in touch with the primal reason the guitar exists- to make music! Seriously! Even casual noodling is good for the mind, body and soul.
I've been getting back into playing this year, after a long hiatus, and discovering all sorts of deft turns of phrase. I'm having a blast, busting the rust off my knuckles and getting my fingerstyle chops back. And I now have more guitars in their prime, strung up, right close at hand, than I have in years. Five new Edwinsons in the corral! That presents a lot of playing possibilities. And a lot of reasons to get distracted and spend the afternoon playing instead of building.
And then there's the necessity of freeing up some space (the guitars are crowding my lumber collection), and I need to get some of these guitars in circulation. My impetus to build them goes up when I have fewer of them available to distract me!

So here are two guitars that are both in their early sonic bloom. They started out sounding great, but they have really settled in and matured nicely, and are growing into their complexity and color now.

Both of them built with select tops- Adirondack and Sinker Redwood- that really stood out tonally. Both of these guitars have stellar wood combinations.

The Blackwood and Sinker Zephyr has a rich, red wine and dark chocolate tone, with bright notes of citrus in the high notes. It's a perfect guitar for fingerstyle folk, Celtic, Hawaiian, and you could play some dark purple blues on this guitar. Any fingerstyle idiom you want, this Zephyr can do. And the 00-size is so easy to hold and play.

The Honduran RW/Adi Consort has lots of power, air space, and sparkle in the tone. It's set up for fingerstyle, but handles a pick like it's natural-born. This guitar sustains clean and clear for long expanses of time, which gives it a sparkling overtone content. The response is amazing even throughout the full range of this guitar's sound. That is one of my primary criteria- even, balanced response from low to mid to high.
This guitar can take you as deep as you care to go into your music.
Not a lot of decorative appointments on this guitar- the design is elegant and straightforward- this is what you would call my most "traditional" guitar.

Both guitars are set up medium/low for fingerstyle, easy to play and even response across the board. I pride myself in a good setup. Personally, I play the entire fingerboard, and I like a setup that's low enough to be easy to play even up around the 12th fret. The frets are very well done, so you have to provoke the guitar to get a buzz.

All the woods in these guitars came from my special show-quality wood sets. They were actually built as Show guitars. (That's why I decided to hold on to them for a few months!
The Consort has a rich and unusual figure that I call "blistered rust" figure; and the Zephyr has gorgeous dark Malaysian Blackwood back and sides. Dark and sonorous, complexly prismatic.

I am offering both of them at a considerable discount from list price, in hopes of matching them up with very compatible new owners.

First the Zephy 00, which I named the "Zephyr Noir" because of the dark and sumptuous woods used in its construction. The back and sides are Malaysian Blackwood, a beautiful SE Asian ebony with a strong rosewood-like vibe; and the top, which is a Mastergrade Sinker Redwood. Here are some introductory photos of the Malay/Sinker Zephyr Noir:



I built the Zephyr Noir in 2014, but except for a brief debut at the Memphis Acoustic Guitar Festival in June, I've kept it mostly incognito, in my personal collection. This Guitar is optimized for fingerstyle, and it has a big, robust, colorful sound, with sustain and overtones for days. The scale length is 25.5", so it is very amenable to dropped tunings. I have mostly kept it tuned down to C-based tunings, with regular light or light/medium gauge strings, and it really excels down there. Sparkling trebles, robust mids, and cello-like bass, this guitar is very satisfying to hold and play. It sounds like a much bigger guitar, definitely punching above its weight class!

The Zephyr Noir specs out to $5560 US, with Guardian Vintage style CG 044-000 case.
I would be happy to send this guitar to a good home for $4760. That, I think is a steal for this guitar, $800 off of spec.
The guitar is over a year old, but still like new, and maybe ten hours of playing time on it since it was born in August 2014. Every time I pick this guitar up, it surprises me how big and open it sounds, especially for a 14 1/4" 00-size...

This is a new guitar with the full warranty. I am happy to send guitars out on approval, if you are okay with paying USPS Priority, insured shipping. Details on request.

I will add the full specifications of the Zephyr Noir in the next post.

Here are a couple shots of the ECS Consort Standard 000, Honduran Rosewood and Adirondack Red Spruce:



The Consort Rojo is called so because she's a hot redhead. What a combination- Honduras Rosewood, with Adirondack spruce. That's as good as it gets. And this guitar is no exception. Prismatic trebles, rollicking mids, deep purple bass...
The Honduran Rosewood is a rare "blistered rust" figure, which looks great with the pale ivory Adi top. And the whole thing is bound and trimmed in beautifully figured but subtle Ziricote. The Fingerboard, headstock plate, and bridge are all Ziricote. It gives the guitar a subtly exotic look.

This guitar is also set up low and fast, and can take fingerstyle as far as you can. The neck is sort of a medium/thin carve which is a nice modern profile.
The Consort Rojo came to be in February 2015, and was the first guitar I built on spec to take to Memphis in June. Since the beginning, this guitar has had a clean, articulate, colorful tone for fingerstyle or light plectrum playing. Honduran Rosewood and Adi, they were made for each other!

The Consort Rojo specs out to $5660 with its special woods and minimal bling. This guitar is made for playing. This guitar would love to go pro. I will let this guitar go for $4860. Same as the Zephyr, that's $800 off list, for a world class guitar. That also includes the Guardian Vintage CG 044 000 case, which is a decent case, but not a custom one.

If you're interested, stay tuned. I'll post the detailed specs for both guitars this weekend. And if you need any further info, just ask and I'm at your service. I'll continue to add more details, hopefully sound clips, in the next few days.
And feel free to make offers, if you like. Nothing is carved in stone! The main thing is, I want my guitars to find good homes and they should please the heck out of their owners. It's so gratifying to match up the right guitar to the right player, y'know?
And you could sure do a lot worse than these two guitars!
More soon- I'll add specifications, more photos, and I'm trying to figure out how to make some adequate sound clips.
Anything you need, let me know.
Thanks for looking!
Steve

[theEdwinson]

Here are some more photos of the Zephyr Noir; specifications to follow...
First, the headstock. This is my Pogoda style slotted headstock, with Ebony faceplate, bordered in Abalone purfling, bound in Ebony, (same as fingerboard) and outfitted with Swiss-made Schertler tuners, with very precise 18:1 ratio.
On the back, the plate is Malaysian Blackwood, embellished with my "constellations" inlay in copper and various types of shell.
You can also see the curly figure in the Honduran Mahogany neck. The center lam is Malaysian Blackwood also.



Here's the werewolf inlay on the back, by DePaule. I like this inlay because it reminds me of one of my favorite movies when I was a kid- "An American Werewolf in London". Campy, funny, and very graphic! I imagine you could use this guitar to write sound tracks for werewolf movies, if you're so inclined. I would start by tuning down to C-minor.



And here's a detail of the front, with sound hole and rosette. The entire front face of the guitar is purfled with abalone shell; including the rosette, fingerboard, and headstock. The rosette inner ring is quilted, spalted Maple.
Also, note that this guitar has thirteen frets-to-body, twenty total. The fretboard position inlays are black MOP, encircled with copper.



The Zephyr Noir is a 00-size guitar, 14 1/4" wide on the lower bout. It is small-ish, very comfortable to hold and play, but is surprisingly loud and expressive.
Scale length is 25.5"; Width @ nut, 1 13/16"; string spread @ saddle, 2 7/32". The fingerboard is radiused to 16", and sports Evo Gold medium/medium frets. The neck is my standard medium/ slim C-carve, an easy to play, modern shape.
The nut and saddle are polished bone.
If you are unfamiliar with Malaysian Blackwood, it is similar in many respects to Macassar Ebony, except that I find it to have a high Q factor tonally- more sustain, and a glassy ring. With the mastergrade Sinker Redwood top, the Zephyr Noir has a loud, complex, overtone-rich sound, and very articulate response. Another characteristic is great evenness of response from bass to mid to treble. It doesn't bark out, or go dull, anywhere on the fingerboard.

[theEdwinson]

...And now, here's more on the Consort Rojo. First, a few more photos. Here's the end graft detail, showing the finely figured Ziricote used throughout this guitar.



The Rojo also has a Pogoda slotted headstock, with Schertler tuners. Here's the back of the headstock, backstrapped with the same "blistered rust" Honduran Rosewood as the back and sides, and beside that, the front headstock, sporting a Ziricote face, with flamed Pyinma purflings and Ziricote bindings.



A view of the side tri-port, which really enhances the player's experience, giving the guitar a very three-dimensional sound.



Close up front and back views...



The Consort Rojo has a big, pianistic tone, with a lot of air and space in it- pretty much what you'd expect, with the combination of Honduran Rosewood and Adirondack Spruce. The 000-size of this guitar gives it a lot of power and range, but it's still easy to hold and play. Also, it has the great balanced response I build into all my guitars, making this guitar sound very "professional".

This guitar also has thirteen frets-to-body, which has become a standard configuration on this and other Edwinson models. It's the best of all worlds, I think- giving that rich and detailed sound you get with a twelve-fretter, but also the extra reach up the fingerboard.
The neck is my typical medium/slim C-carve; very easy on the hand, and a nice profile for all sorts of left-hand techniques.

The width @ nut is 1 13/16"; the string spread @ saddle is 2 7/32"; the fingerboard radius is 16"; the frets are medium/medium Evo Gold, my favorite fret wire.
The neck shaft is American Cherry, with Honduran RW center lam. As with all my guitars, there is LMI TRSD two-way adjustable truss rod, accessible through the sound hole.
The bridge is my "Element 3.0" style, Ziricote, with polished bone saddle and bridge pins.
One other detail- both the Zephyr Noir and the Consort Rojo have double-sides. The inner sides on both are Khaya, or African Mahogany. This is my standard practice now. It's a fair amount of extra work to build this way, but I think all the added benefits make it an essential feature. Aside from making those side a lot tougher and less likely to crack, the more rigid rims give the top and the back plates a great foundation, so they can really move some air.

Just to reiterate: I am offering the Consort Rojo here on the AGF for $800 below list- that's $4860 US. That includes a Guardian brand, vintage style CG-044-000 hard case. Custom fitted Ameritage or custom carbon fiber Karura case is also an option; if you buy this guitar and want the custom case, I can set you up! Delivery will take about eight weeks, as these are custom built to order.
Also, standard policy is to ship guitars to potential buyers on approval, so you have a few days to be sure the guitar pleases you. If you are okay with paying the shipping charges, I'll send it to you for a serious audition. I know how much of a leap of faith it is to buy an expensive guitar you haven't played, so I want to make this as risk-free as possible.
And when you get the guitar, I prefer to shut up, and let the guitar do all the talking.

Any other information you need, let me know, via a PM here, or send an email.
Thanks for looking, and I hope your search is fruitful. There's a perfect guitar for you out there somewhere; maybe it's one of these two!

[theEdwinson]

Here are a few more photos of these two guitars, for a Sunday bump:






Thanks for looking!

[theEdwinson]

Time for a Monday bump!
I'm experimenting with CGCGCE tuning on the Zephyr Noir- trying to work out a tune that is sort of a hybrid of Hawaiian slack-key and Irish jig. It's a perfest guitar for that!
The Consort Rojo continues to open up and get better sounding, every time I pick it up.
Thanks for looking!

[theEdwinson]

I would like to wish everyone here on the AGF a Happy New Year! Best wishes for a successful, creative, fun, interesting 2016- and an abundance of good health, good fortune, and prosperity. All the best to all the great people who spend quality time here on the Acoustic Guitar Forum!

I hope you also get that wonderful new guitar you've been lusting after- whether it's one of mine, or an instrument built by any of our illustrious friends here. You deserve it! Just think how much happier your family will be if you are happy yourself!
Cheers!

[theEdwinson]

If one of your New Years resolutions was to practice your guitar playing skills more, or learn a few new tunes, either one of these guitars will make that resolution not only easier, but a total blast to keep on with. Give yourself (or someone you love) a gift that endures for a lifetime!

[theEdwinson]

If you are looking for a superlative fingerstyle guitar with great one and easy playability, both of these guitars are great choices. I always send spec guitars out on approval, so you can have some quality time with it, and decide if it's a perfect fit before you commit the $$$.
C'mon... you know you want to...

[theEdwinson]

I have a little dilemma- a good one, but still... I still have both of these guitars, and I just re-strung both of them with the new D'Addario "Nickel bronze" strings that just came out. Both guitars now sound awesome- PLUS.
My dilemma is, I'm having a hard time getting any work done, because I just want to play these two guitars all day.
somebody needs to take these two home. Both of these guitars will make their owners very happy for a long time; and my work ethic will improve a lot, in the bargain.
Reasonable offers gladly considered.

[theEdwinson]

Just a quick update: The Zephyr Noir has found a happy new home in Southern California, where it will be churning out some fingerstyle blues on a regular basis. So let's mark this one SOLD!

The Consort Rojo is still available, and sounding magnificent. It's a wonderful, responsive, airy, big sound with fat bass, rollicking mids, and crystalline trebles- tons of sustain, beautiful overtones...
I will consider reasonable offers. The Rojo is going to make someone very happy.

[theEdwinson]

I just had a couple of inquiries about guitars I have available, so I thought I should re-activate this thread- The Consort Rojo 000 is still available; in fact, it's sitting beside me right now, tuned to CGCGCEb, with a new set of strings, still sounding magnificent, still waiting to go out and make its fortune in the world.

The Zephyr Noir has recently gone to a new home out in California, bought by Brett D. from Kernville. Last week Brett contacted me about commissioning another Edwinson- a Consort or Performance. I'll be building him one of those next year. So I guess he really likes that Zephyr Noir!
Thanks for looking, and keep a good groove going!