[NAMM] Sauvage Guitars to display One Piece Master

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Sauvage Guitars will display its unique One-Piece Master guitar at the NAMM which starts ten days from now.

Carved out in a single piece of ash olive burl, Sauvage Guitars’ One-Piece Master features an uncompromising construction method that has been pushed to its limits with a “through body” fingerboard that literally becomes the soundboard of the instrument. The concave body and soundboard of this unique model create a reverberation chamber that gives the instrument a unique resonance and sustain.

Olive ash burl is a relatively lightweight wood known to deliver a pleasing balance of brightness and warmth. As for the flamed maple wood of the “through body” fingerboard, it is prized for its bright tone and great sustain.

The neck is reinforced with 4 titanium rods to ensure neck stability and playing comfort. The titanium is lighter, stronger and is said to resonate better than a classic steel truss rod, providing richer tones across the frequency spectrum. The “One-Piece Master” also breaks with convention at every step of the construction process: according to Sauvage Guitars, the neck angle is a feature that has never been seen before on a one-piece instrument, adding to make the “One-Piece Master” an astonishing engineering achievement.

And the harware seems just as unique as the rest: the strings rest on a woolly mammoth fossil horn nut, which is described as softer than bone and pre-ban elephant ivory and meant to render a mellow tone able to balance the natural brightness of the instrument. The bridge is shaped from a Damascus steel billet. Initially used by blacksmiths for manufacturing luxury blades and swords, Damascus steel is known for its distinctive patterns and high densityn allowing the bridge to add to the guitar’s precision and dynamic.

The 3 knobs feature the brand’s distinctive “angle-cut triangle” – meant as a symbol of perfect balance. With its angles cut, the triangle becomes a hexagon in reference to the French roots of the brand. But their shape is not even the knobs’ most original feature as they are set on a photo-luminescent Cristallium plate – a material brighter than glass that lets through the photo-luminescent pigments’ glowing properties.

The One-Piece Master also features pickup tops cut from solid blocks of Fortal, a material originally developed for use in the aerospace industry and known for its high resistance to corrosion. Beneath the outstanding tops, the “One-Piece Master” is powered by a set of custom wound pickups.

The painstakingly sculpted olive ash burl wood body has been kept as natural as possible. The top and the headstock are finished in Tudor Gray, bringing the instrument a modern-edged vintage spirit. The Tudor Gray finish is from the “Classic Car Colors” collection by Glasurit, and this very color was made famous by French luxury car manufacturer Facel Vega on the notorious HK-500.