Pheo Dale

If you're new to Pheo Guitars, read on. These fractured, yet crafted, random yet profoundly organized instruments are the creations of Phil Sylvester of Pheo Guitars. They are the very epitome of functional art – they play, beautifully, even startlingly well. They are consummate instruments that press hard at the boundaries of what we normally think an instrument “should” be. From Pheo you will find remarkable guitars and amplifiers made from found objects and crafted elements – old instrument parts, hairdryers, grills, vacuum cleaners, etc. all deconstructed and reassembled into a whole that only vaguely resembles, and certainly transcends it’s origins.

Pheo Dale - $3250

The Dale has a hollow mahogany body with a thin Sitka spruce top. The top and back are coupled with a delicate box beam construction that keeps the guitar sufficiently rigid while being incredibly light (5lbs 2 oz).  The strings pull through a small area of solid wood beneath the tail end of the bridge plate. These structural details give the guitar an interesting singing sustain despite being hollow. The neck is 25 1/2 inch scale, 16 inch radius, maple with rosewood cap and a fairly sizable C profile, not a boat neck by any means but a little heftier than a medium C. The pickups are a Florance Tele style at the bridge and a Pheo custom at the neck, using old Dimarzio PAF coils and the magnet structure from Gibson's original pedal steel humbuckers from the fifties. The design gives more clarity in the neck position than a typical humbucker. Controls are a push/push switch for choosing the primary pickup, master volume, master tone, and a blend control for adding the secondary pickup.