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Artists who play instruments by this builder: Henry Kaiser, John Cale

Special Offer: In response to the economic climate the owner of this wonderful series of guitars is offering a limited time 40% reduction to offer players a chance to own these very special limited edition guitars.

Just off a showing at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California. The Nouveau Series is a special project developed by author and musician Paul Schmidt and luthier Michael Spalt. A series of electric guitars that transcend the six string and blend it seemlessly with true art. The series was inspired by Art Nouveau and these instruments are at once art and the most serious of musical tools. Michael Spalt and Paul Schmidt spent several years developing the idea, finding artwork and artifacts, sketching, collaborating and finally building these exquisite gems. The pieces are based on the Klein acoustic shape with inclusions of art nouveau artifacts, natural woods, bone and the finest hardware. Not only are these instruments stunning visual works of art, but they are ergonomic masterpieces as well. The bodies feel immediately familiar and the solid Rosewood necks, with there flat sheen, feel played for 50 years.

The BoneTop pickups are extraordinary - Gorgeous hand crafted Bone bobbins died in a variety of colors with Alnico magnets for the Bridge and Ceramic for the Neck. They voice is stellar, clear and loud with other-worldly sustain. Each instrument also has it's own custom case that continues the guitars individual statement as well as a signed copy of the book 'The Nouveau Series' by Paul Schmidt.

'Tiffany Prototype' This prototype instrument blooms from multi-coloured Tiffany glass that exhibits a variety of hues simultaneously - blues, purples, golds, browns, greens, rusts, reds - a stirring example of Tiffany's vision. The instrument has Tiffany's glass suspended over gold-leaf, surrounded by hand-carved walnut, ebony, and mango woods, whimsically inlaid with curving stylized Dr. Suess-flower-like mother-of-pearl, abalone, and silver which extend from the body to the neck - deftly placed at the 5th and 12th frets - and into the headpiece face. The custom- to-this-Series Fralin pickups are covered in coloured bone, as is each instrument in the Series, though the colouring varies from instrument to instrument to interact more congenially with the specific instru- ment's art and design. In this instrument the blue and gold of the pickups is inspired by the glass' spectrum of colours.

The neck and body materials are rosewood and old-growth mahogany respectively - another generalized feature to each of the other instruments in the Series, as is the ebony fingerboard, inlaid on the side with handmade circles of silver and pearl, along with the Indian rosewood phantom sound hole. This instrument's knobs are fashioned from rosewood and the selector switch is Catalin - a very early plastic material popular in the 1930s.

Click here to read about the Nouveau Series on builder Michael Spalt's website. 
Click Here to view the book 'The Nouveau Series' by Paul Schmidt. 
Click Here to view photos from the Museum Showing at the Museum of Making Music.

Special Offer: In response to the economic climate the owner of this wonderful series of guitars is offering a limited time 40% reduction to offer players a chance to own these very special limited edition ...read full description

Artists who play instruments by this builder: Henry Kaiser, John Cale