Photo credit — Geoffrey Yenson (www.yensonguitars.com / Instagram @yensonguitars)
David Dart Honduras rosewood & Sitka spruce D-14 dreadnought guitar
FOR SALE – contact David if you’re interested!
This gorgeous acoustic bass guitar is built from a reclaimed local old-growth redwood top, Honduras rosewood sides & back, curly maple binding/heelcap, ebony bridge/fretboard/peghead overlay, and a Honduras mahogany neck. The redwood & rosewood are the same as David’s recent redwood-rosewood parlor guitar.
Its 31″ scale results in easy playability and reach, while still holding onto its dynamic punch.
Like its cousin parlor guitar, this bass also features a soundport, on the player’s side upper bout. The soundport acts as a monitor, directing sound waves towards the player’s ears as well as from the front aperture.
SOLD
Just finished & for sale! This 14-fret parlor guitar has a reclaimed local old growth redwood top, Honduras rosewood sides & back, boxwood binding/heelcap, colorful marquetry purfling, ebony bridge/fretboard/peghead overlay, and a Honduras mahogany neck.
The redwood top has stunning medullary grain pattern & from a tree that was easily 1,000 years old – maybe much older – with 25 growth rings per inch over what we’re assuming was at least a four-foot radius. Any redwood experts want to weigh in on this?
This one is also David’s first guitar with a soundport, on the player’s side upper bout. The soundport acts as a monitor, directing sound waves towards the player’s ears as well as from the front aperture. This guitar sounds a lot bigger than its parlor size – available for demo at the Dart Instruments showroom.
FOR SALE – $8,500. Price includes hardshell case; tax and/or shipping extra. Contact us if you’re interested in this instrument.
This beautiful Dart 0-14 parlor guitar is all Honduras mahogany, a throwback to the classic pre-war Martin parlors. Voiced and braced by master luthier David Dart, it sings with phenomenal projection relative to its compact body size and has a well-balanced timbre. Its 24-3/4″ scale is light and pliable, with effortless low action for first-position open chords as well melodic runs all the way up the fretboard.
FOR SALE – $8,500. Price includes hardshell case; tax and/or shipping extra. Contact us if you’re interested in this instrument.
Here’s another custom one, for our friend Ryan. It’s a standard 14-fret dreadnought, with gorgeous Honduras mahogany and David’s usual old-growth Sitka spruce top. Ryan plans to be gigging regularly with this guitar, so we installed a K&K pickup and added some lightweight spruce braces along the inner sides for extra stiffness & crack prevention.
SOLD – custom order
This sweet concert ukulele is pre-owned and looking for its second home. Features koa top, back, & sides, black acacia neck, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard & bridge, abalone rosette & peghead Dart inlay.
Please note that this instrument is pre-owned and has some strumming marks on its top and a bit of buckle rash on the back.
“This is a guitar I made for my son Eli Dart. The size and style were made to his specs and the ornamentation for memories. The back and sides are made from wood my Grandfather (Eli’s great grandfather) harvested in Angola, Africa, in the early 1920’s. I do not know what kind of wood it is. It is heavy and a bit waxy like Rosewood and beautiful! The top wood is Sitka Spruce from Ketchikan Alaska. A big blow-down, not logged and shipped to me as split blocks to be sawed by me into top wood.
The ornamentation is from his memories of growing up on a ridge in Redwood country and a swing in a Maple tree. The Green Man is watching over it all. I like making things special!”
-David Dart
Just completed: custom David Dart parlor guitar, with master-grade Sitka spruce top, Honduras rosewood sides & back, Honduras rosewood neck, fine herringbone purfling, ebony appointments, and celestial-themed inlay with a wolf howling at the moon on the peghead. This one has twelve frets to the body, for a slightly shorter overall length. That’s the Scorpio constellation on the upper frets ✨
This one was custom-ordered, but please contact us if you’re interested in something similar.
We’ve been busy all summer working on a stunning batch of new guitars: three parlor guitars, two dreadnoughts, another fretless bass, and a OO (double-oh). All of these guitars have Honduras mahogany necks and ebony fingerboards/bridges, but the other trim & appointments vary. These should be strung up and ready to play within the next month or so:
Please contact us if you’re interested in trying out or purchasing one of the spec instruments — we’ll have two brand-new parlor guitars, a dreadnought, and a medium-body fretless bass ready for the 2022 holiday gift-giving season, as well as several other amazing guitars and ukuleles in our current inventory.
Please note that although the festival runs from Friday, September 16th until Sunday, September 18th, the luthier marketplace will only be open on Saturday & Sunday.
From the CIGF website:
“After a 5 year hiatus, California International Guitar Festival (CIGF) will be held September 16-18, 2022 at the Performing Arts Center on Cal Poly’s campus in San Luis Obispo, CA.
The festival is a sweeping three-day celebration, showcasing the beauty and history of the guitar as an artistic tool through the performances of a cadre of international guitar masters. The CIGF will also feature numerous master classes for young and up-and-coming performers conducted by giants in the field. The popular luthier marketplace will also return.”
For more information & advance ticket purchase, visit www.californiainternationalguitarfestival.com.
