Wood trip to the Rivolta company near Milan, Italy
In July 2002 Daniel visited the Rivolta wood company near Milan, Italy. It is a family business that has been supplying instrument builders with wood for over a hundred years. The wood selected included spruce from the Italian Alps—in the Val di Fiemme—in the Northeastern region of the country, along the border of Austria, for nylon string guitars and archtop guitars, cypress from the Mediterranean coast in Italy for flamenco guitars and Balkan maple for archtop back and sides.

Click on the picture to see two pages of photographs of the wood trip.

New: the 'New Vintage' guitars
Recently Daniel has produced some guitars that now can be identified as 'New Vintage' guitars; instruments that are styled like vintage instruments but play like modern instruments. 'Vintage' for a good vibe and feel, 'New' because state-of-the-art hardware parts are used such as Waverly tuners and Kent Armstrong pickups.

Check out these New Vintage guitars under the Models button:

1923 model

1939 model (prototype)

New: Kent Armstrong pickups

Kent Armstrong has come up with some new models; check them out at the Pickups page.

Kent Armstrong Alnico Single Coil pickup

Recently completed guitars:

1923 model for Dudley Hill, guitarist with Pearl Django
Click here for more info

1923 model from the 'New Vintage' serie; made alongside the Hill guitar (above) but finished in December 2002. Click here fore more info

Prototype North sea 1939 guitar, styled like the first Gibson L5 with a cutaway.
A 'New vintage' instrument with an Armstrong single coil pickup.
Click here for specifications and more photo's

A prototype 14 1/2 inch North sea Jazz Junior archtop jazz guitar; a lightweight and compact design, which makes it ideal for small concerts at restaurants or bars where you don't have 'room to move' (does that trigger a harmonica solo by John Mayall with you? it does with me) , or travel. It fits in a classical guitar case ! And still you get this classic, deep and mellow jazz sound from a handcarved and tuned body and mahogany neck.
A cool guitar and it's a joy to play.
Click here for full specifications and more photo's

The Flamenco pages ; At last after several years Flamenco guitars are again under construction; a guitar in cypres with spruce soundboard and a flamenca negra in spectacular Brazilian rosewood, also with a spruce soundboard. Go to the Flamenco pages to see the guitars in detail. Both guitars are now available at La Guitarra Buena in Amsterdam; visit their website at http://www.guitarrabuena.nl .

Available now: mammoth ivory nut and other hardware parts

Available now is mammoth ivory for the nut and other guitar parts.

To deal in elephant ivory is illegal since the CITES agreement (1989). Woolly mammoth ivory is legal ivory and found mostly in Siberia. The woolly mammoth became extinct at the end of the last Ice age, 10.000 years ago.

This tusk is estimated to be about 16.000 years old. The quality of the ivory is amazing, being preserved for thousands of years in the permafrost of Siberia. Compared to bone, the sound of ivory ads a little more character and depth, especially on the open bass strings.

Nut included on Elite instruments; on Standard and Premium instruments ad $ 35,- for the nut in mammoth ivory.

Mammoth ivory cross bar (string holder) on tailpiece; ad $ 145,-
Mammoth ivory end pin (strap button); ad $ 35,-
Waverly tuners with mammoth ivory knobs; ad $ 245,-
Mammoth ivory knobs on Schaller machines; ad $ 190,-
Mammoth ivory truss rod cover; ad $ 45,- 
Mammoth ivory knob on volume or tone control ad $ 85,-

Want to know more about the mammoth? Click here.