AUTUMN SUNSET 730L 12-STRING ACOUSTIC

As the color palette for our builds and refinishes begins to widen, clients often request that we come up with unusual color combinations, in order to distinguish their guitars from others of their type (as if a turquoise burst finish on a premium maple jumbo acoustic guitar isn’t sufficiently unusual…).

Accordingly, a number of years ago, we began to give our guitars more visual impact by expanding the range of light-to-dark and brightening what colorists refer to as “chroma”—that is, mixing the colors with a good deal more intensity than previously was typical.

To further expand on the concept of unique colors and combinations, we began to investigate combinations that had not been used before, either out of lack of imagination, cost (unusual color bursts require many times the effort and expense of mixing and applying multiple colors in a burst finish), or sheer conservatism—acoustic guitar players are, generally speaking a traditional group stylistically, preferring the centuries-old color schemes for their instruments. While amber maple and brown bursts are attractive and classic, we are encouraged to stretch out a bit, with good results.

The first experimentation happened with the Aquaglo 700 Jumbo 12-string also featured on this site. It has a four-color burst to which the deepest shade of blue-violet was added a small amount of ground paua shell, to yield an iridescent violet glow under strong lighting in certain angles. This was visually quite successful, although if we were to describe its burst colors in words, it would probably not sound very appealing.

It’s all in the subtle details, you see…

More recently came the “California Sunset” Jumbo, which color scheme was inspired by a sunset sky over San Francisco Bay. It starts out at the center of the burst with a typical amber-to-orange tint, which moves through a red to deeper magenta, and finally morphs into a midnight blue and black pearl shading on the edges and neck extremities, to which are added a sprinkling of white pearlescent stars!

…which brings us to this 730L/12 Dreadnought.

This guitar owes some of its color scheme to the aforementioned “California Sunset” Jumbo, in that it begins at its center in an orangish amber, with a stronger chroma than the “California Sunset” Jumbo. Too, the orange, red, and magenta are “punched up” to give them more impact. But here’s where the color scheme takes an unexpected turn into a opaque pearlescent Cobalt Blue around the edges, and especially on the shading of the headstock and neck heel. Again, this might not sound very appealing, but just feast your eyes on the photographic result!