Shabby Chic custom '00 1/2' size guitar with wedge body and Ryan-style armrest bevel: Sold out


After searching low and high we found some really well built contemporary factory-made small bodied guitars from Asia with 1 11/16" wide nuts and slim necks with a C profile that we thought could really benefit from the Shabby Chic treatment. We were right... after installing a Manzer-style wedge-shaped body and a Ryan-style armrest bevel we found these to be extrodinarily comfortable guitars to play, but the real beauty of these instruments is their tone. Our luthier thoughtfully voiced each top's bracing using the principles he learned studying under Ervin Somogyi in order to bring out the kind of well defined bass, great clarity, volume, and separation of notes that are usually only found on one-off guitars from world-class builders. Somewhere between an OO and OOO size but with a long 25.4" scale, these 'OO 1/2' guitars speak to the very core of what Shabby Chic Guitars are supposed to be.

Guitar specs:
-Solid sitka spruce top with custom voiced light bracing
-Solid Mahogany back
-Mahogany neck
-Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
-Chrome sealed tuners
-25.4" Scale Length
-1-11/16" neck width at the nut
-String spacing at saddle: 2-1/4"
-Ryan-style armrest bevel
-Wedge shaped body with 1" taper
-Very low action of 5-6/64ths at the 12th fret optimized for fingerstyle playing
-Satin finish on the neck and body; top is gloss
-Bone saddle
-Slotted bridge with your choice of rosewood, ebony, or boxwood pins
-Hardshell archtop case included


The Process:
First each guitar has it's original laminated Mahogany back removed and promptly thrown into the trash where it belongs. The sides are then carved to give the wedge shaped profile. Our luthier then painstakingly hand voices each top, carving away bracing to minimize weight and get the stiffness profile just right. The goal is a very lightly braced guitar that has a responsive tone ideally suited to today's fingerstyle player: a well defined and disciplined bass, good volume across all registers and up and down the neck, and a great clarity and separation of notes. Next the back is replaced with a set of bookmatched solid mahogany, the guitar is bound, and the armrest bevel is carved. The bridge is slotted and plastic pins are replaced with solid wood pins. Finally the guitar gets a new bone saddle and is painstakingly set up with very low action for fingerstyle players. The result is a guitar with superior tone, playability, and comfort features at quite literally a small fraction of the price of a custom luthier-built guitar.





















Shipping to US (via UPS) and Canada ($55 via USPS) only. Paypal only. All Shabby Chic guitars come with a 7 day approval period once received. If you don't like it, simply send it back and we will refund your purchase price (minus any actual shipping costs).