Pawar Guitar will soon be producing their legendary three-coil pickup in several flavors for retrofit into any guitar that is routed for humbucking pickups. Known as the Positive Tone System, Pawar will be producing their pickups in-house rather than having Seymour Duncan manufacture their patented tonal powerhouse.

Each pickup housing contains a stacked humbucking and a single coil, which are evenly matched. Within a two pickup system is the ability to get 20 different sounds with two push/pull knobs and a five-way switch. They will make two different five-ways, a Gibson-like toggle and a Fender-like toggle.

Oasis Humidifier now makes classical guitar strings, in carbon and in hard nylon. The GPX carbon trebles and the Centurion Flex-Core Classical Bass Strings make the perfect set for those who are looking for a clear sound but with extreme poser and tonal width.

I've used this particular configuration on my cedar/Indian rosewood classical guitar and the result was pushing this warm wood combination into the realm of a spruce to. The power of the basses are astounding, the trebles are thicker in diameter than, for instance the Savarez Alliance, and to offset the Alliance, the GPX carbon trebles have more warmth. It is an exciting string for those who don't care for the small diameter of some carbons and the overly clear sound that maybe lacks warmth.

Voyage Air guitar now offers a new kind of travel guitar that has a collapsible neck. This is a full sized guitar, made in China and what is absent on their website is the actual crux of their so-called development.

The neck has a complete slice, through the fretboard and heel. With a hinge joint the neck folds onto the body and the strings slip into the hole. It's pretty crafty if it worked.

Being at the center of the pull of the tension of the strings, onto the body and neck, the cut is unattractive and the hinge idea causes heel travel and neck warp. In front of the cut the neck sunk and was twisted, in back of the cut all was well. I sampled ten of their guitars and every one was warped and the heel was as liquid as liquid. I could move the heel around easier than a three-bolt Fender Stratocaster.

If it hasn't been done before it is probably for a reason is what I suggested but the company was well under way as a company headed by Harvey Leach, a luthier well known for his inlay work and problematic guitars, at least every Leach guitar I've seen was problematic, and an anonymous investor without any guitar knowledge.

This is a true study of advertising in that what is absent in the advertising is the very ham handedness of the invention and country of origin. Hey, China makes some fine guitars so why not say it proudly? But the physics don't work out since a contiguous neck is what we depend on to make a neck withstand the pull of the strings and the ugly cut is right there in the center of the pull making the neck an elastic and movable item when "locked and loaded."

Brunner Outdoor Guitars, made in Switzerland has been making travel guitars since 1995. Based on a contiguous neck that unbolts, this guitar features a piece behind the bridge that is removable with the neck. The whole operation or loading or unloading can be done in a minute and when loaded the guitar is in tune and ready to play.

Since it has a contiguous neck there is no warp or traveling heel. The guitar is full sized and comes in multiple models including a nylon string. I say nylon rather than classical guitar; it is simply a modified smaller bodies steel string. Brunner and Voyage Air have no plans to make a classical travel guitar.

I've yet to see a Brunner, but I think it is the real thing as differentiated by the Voyage Air, which is a bad experiment at the expense of the buyer.

The Ribbecke Halfling Guitar is not a new product. I have known about the Ribbecke Halfling Guitar for almost two years as I was there close to the advent of the Ribbecke Bobby Vega Halfling Acoustic Bass guitar, which was the ONLY acoustic bass guitar that was worth more than firewood. At least this was to my knowledge.

The “sound bubble” technology made the sonic fact that the acoustic guitar bass of this design was the ONLY acoustic guitar bass. In the short of it the sound bubble technology is part acoustic guitar/part archtop. The coupling of the archtop, which is in essence from the violin family, is the only way to fly an acoustic bass guitar for volume and tone. Other acoustic bass guitars have been lacking in both to the point that the creation makes no sense unless it is supplied with pickup.

The Ribbecke Halfling Jazz guitar, designed by one of the finest luthier’s on the planet, Tom Ribbecke, is a double take in every way. Tom’s working of wood is legendary and jazz guitars from his hands alone come with the twenty plus thousand dollar price tag. The Halfling project is more of a committee made endeavor, some machining but essentially from a group of highly trained and dedicated staff. I have dealt the basses and have had a chance to examine the workmanship at my leisure, and it is among the best committee made guitars available.

On this visit I examined and played two Halflings, a jazz trapeze tailpiece and a steel string pin bridge. Both guitars, upon first strum require an ear wash of the conceptions you may have about tone.

Acoustically, the jazz Halfling is beautiful, stringy and loud the sound is somewhat like an archtop but with a more forceful and clear sound. As I said, an adjustment has to be made and stepping into a new sound world, not exactly far removed from the old sound world of jazz guitars, takes a bit of playing time, and I sat with the jazz Halfling for more than one half of an hour, both acoustically and plugged in to an amplifier via the Kent Armstrong finger rest pickup.

I’ve owned so many different types of guitars by different makers with different approaches that it is worth mentioning that in my opinion all good guitars sounds are valid and to deviate from the norm makes a guitar more intriguing. This is the case with the Halfling anything. If I had some time on these guitars I’d have some new music based on its particular sound.

The Halfling steel string acoustic was perhaps more mind boggling in that the sound was something more removed from the acoustic steel string we know. It is weightier, for one, the mass of timbre is more complex and full. It is a sound that is so arresting that I had to spend more than the short time I had to fully realize what I was hearing. This, I suggest, is the mark of a truly remarkable instrument.

I suggest that whenever you have a chance to sample a Ribbecke Halfling, without hesitation, do so. These are some of the most advanced and individually thought out instruments from the mind of a true master builder.

The Vox Virage

It is incredibly the same all of the time. The banality of huge claims of outstanding tone and playability is predictable in the world of electric guitars but this one caught my eye because of a new claim, a claim of ergonomics.

The Vox Virage came with such a claim of an ergonomically thought out instrument. This has been a particular interesting thing to me from even a sociological standpoint. I’ve always thought that ergonomics on electric guitars, especially solid body ones, follow strutting for the tribe being entertained. Guitars hang the lowest the more adolescent the music is, the older the audience the higher the guitar seems to hang. I’ve always had the question in the back of my mind: Is the music dictated by how low or high the guitar hangs? Of course it is dictated by such considerations. The chicken comes before the egg in this case.

Craigslist is a hoot! I get more entertainment from there than anywhere on the Internet from the “musicians” section. There was an argument in this section about where to buy a beginners guitar between Best Buy and Zone Music in Cotati, California. I entered into the conversation anonymously as a man from the Middle East who owned a liquor store playing an unknown instrument. But Zone Music was mentioned and I gave a look at their Online presence. Looked like a very good store to me and they had this Vox Virage guitar that claimed to be the end all, as all guitars do, of your search for an instrument.

Whoever could make a claim that Best Buy was the place for anything that had anything to do with a musical instrument? The claim was made, the argument was abandoned with the typical cowardly flagging, but Zone Music was not far from where I live so the wife and I went for a weekend of wine tasting and guitar sniffing.

By all means and reasons I do recommend Zone Music in the highest. The service and treatment was exceptional and I was led straight to the Vox guitars in question. As with everyone under 40 that do not play jazz or classical guitar, nobody can explain what ergonomics is. After a brief exchange with the salesman, who showed me the ergonomics of the guitar by wrapping this thumb around, the low G of a G Major chord, the exacerbation of my inquiry’s fruitlessness was driven home.

The Vox Virage has absolutely nothing to do with an ergonomic solution to anything unless you consider a Baby Boomer with a beer belly trying to reproduce Keith Richards licks. The guitar has an interesting scoop right in the middle of the back to accept those extra pounds of belly, otherwise there isn’t even a strap button on the heel, which I contend is the first indication of ergonomic thinking. That placement puts the neck near your fretting hand for ease and light pressure.

The Vox Virage has some very nice sounds. In order to get quick generic sounds out of an amplifier, I coupled it with a Vox modeling amp, which has a 12 AX7 tube to get a good “tube sound.” The clean, the distortion of various saturations and a number of crunches came to bear with a remarkable amount of variety, since you have a number of pickups, both single and humbucker combinations. Nothing to complain about here.

But, for a $2500 guitar the fit and finish lacks a whole lot. It is a machined guitar that may have some committee made features, the horrid use of plastic pickup covers in a sick kind of color, the neck, although a good player, reminded me of any classical Asian guitar from the 1970s, the sick white wood-grained finish, the sorry tobacco sunburst, the cheap small mini-toggles, the overall pastiche of “Asia trying to go expensive in the early 1970s,” made for a situation of “hand washing after playing.”

Again, this is a good guitar with many features that were attractive. The semi-hollow nature of the guitar makes it good for just about anything from the spank for country, the sweet stringy sound for jazz on the neck pickup was tremendous, the overdriven was with some string clarity and the clean/crunch for rock was also tremendous. I wouldn’t recommend this guitar for metal.

Back to ergonomics: I will admit the ergonomics is in the body of the practitioner. I practice a fully realized music that is complete, classical guitar. My electric playing is derived from a combination of rock and classical. My left hand needs the neck to be in a certain position. A Fender Stratocaster, with the strap button on the upper horn, will not get the neck up enough to let my hand go free with little pressure and optimum spread. The only solution, with this kind of guitar, is drill a hole through the bolt-on plate at the heel and install a strap button there.

For $2500, street price maybe $1900 or so, the Vox Virage is not a good deal. Too much like a cheap guitar but with some nice features and make no mistake, if you play a more advanced kind of music you’ll have to drill a strap button on the heel.