This arch top guitar is a one of a kind masterpiece that was made especially for a collector who appreciates one of a kind, handmade "Art" guitars. It took Dave Schneider at least two thousand hours and two years to design and build this guitar by hand without the help of any computers or carving machines.
This instrument is unique in many ways. The string-through bridge design is the result of over thirty years of experience and trying to find the ultimate tonal qualities and the best playability combined in one instrument. The headstock is chambered, causing it to resonate like a built in delay and stereo effect and also to provide lightness and a perfect weight balance to the instrument. The bracing is an X brace and parallel combined with five box joints that had to fit perfectly. The brace took at least forty hours to contour to the underside of the soundboard without any gaps in the glue joint. The ends of the parallel braces are mortised into the tail block for strength and tone.
The top and back plates are thinly carved with two compound arches with no “re-curve” like a normal arch top. The result is a sound that resembles a grand piano. The clarity and sustain out-performs any “conventional” arch top guitar design.
The wood is the best of the best. The European spruce and highly figured maple are some of the finest woods that exist today and the highly figured ebony is unheard of and extremely rare.
The wraparound “clasp” overlay on the sides is derived from lute construction. It has never been attempted on a guitar much less an arch top guitar. The micro black-white-black inlay and the many miters contained within it all around the instrument had to be handled with a high-powered opti-visor and a razor sharp chisel and the patience of a Zen master.
Schneider feels this guitar is a dream within a dream. The sound is like no other instrument on this planet and the visual qualities and design concepts are the culmination of a lifelong pursuit of his artistry and refinement of this craft.