Koll RE6

YOU ARE VIEWING A SALES ARCHIVE ENTRY - THIS GUITAR HAS BEEN SOLD. IT IS POSTED HERE AS AN EXAMPLE OF PAST SALES. PLEASE CHECK THE "NEW ARRIVALS" SECTION FOR INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE

Despite its unusual appearance, this guitar shares many of the same construction details as a normal carved acoustic jazz box. The top is carved Sitka spruce, with a single spruce tone bar. The back is carved big leaf maple. The bass bout is bent big leaf maple. The traditional F-hole is bound with faux tortoise, as is the bass side. The 24.625” fingerboard is ebony, the neck shaft is Mahogany. The tuners are gearless, designed by Steinberger. The single pickup is made by Harmonic Design.

The departure from a typical “jazz box” is that where normally there is a tailpiece, there is what looks like a headstock. And where normally there is a headstock there is--nothing. Also, the treble bout of the guitar is not a typical hourglass shape, but something entirely different.

The guitar’s unusual shape puts it in a most comfortable seated playing position. The acoustic tone sculpting allows for a rich voice, not unlike a full size arch top guitar. The headless design allows for a smaller package and is easy to carry.

The story behind the design (in Saul Koll's words):
"The RE model was designed initially for Ron Eschete. Ron is most seen playing large arch top 7 string guitars and that is how I most saw him. One day a student of his came in with an ergonomically designed electric solid body made by Steve Klein. This guitar was very comfortable and was quite portable. This appealed to Ron as at the time he was touring and on the road and flying around. Carrying a large acoustic jazz box on an airplane is not very fun!

"Ron asked if I could make him a 7 string version of the Klein design, and something without the Steinberger vibrato tailpiece (which the Klein was built around.) And I said yes.

"But as I contemplated the idea, it became clear to me that a straight on copy would not be appropriate for Ron. I thought long about the tone we wanted, as well as about the appearance. I didn’t think we could get the tone he was used to with a solid body, and seeing him with anything but a jazz box didn’t seem right. It occurred to me to do a mash-up, a “composite”, a “combine”. What if I took the important aspects of each instrument? What would that be? I ended up taking the ergonomic aspects from the Klein: the neck angle, the headless design, and the way it sits on your leg and presents itself to the player. I paired this with a hourglass hollow carved arch top bass side. My idea was to capture the tone and vibe of a small arch top guitar, but have it be comfortable.  Also, I wanted to bring something familiar to the looks of the instrument.  To this end I bound only the F-hole and the hourglass shape. The ergonomic aspects were not highlighted.  The idea being if one were to walk into a club where Ron was playing, a quick glance over to the bandstand would have Ron sitting there as usual, holding something with the classic hourglass shape, and the F-hole. Unless they really looked closely, they might not notice just how different this guitar actually is. My goal with this design was to provide utmost comfort, playability and tone to the guitarist, and to do so without distracting the listener."--Saul Koll

This guitar was built for NAMM, and the Montreal Guitar show. It's been handled and played.  There is one ding in the back, sort of like buckle rash, but other than that the instrument is mint.