The Guitar Magazine: Nautilus review
The new issue of The Guitar Magazine is out today and includes a very exciting review of a slightly different Nautilus Classic!
I recently met up with The guitar and bass magazine’s editor Chris Vinnicombe in Berlin at the holy grail guitar show, and was pleased to show him the guitars I had built for the show. We agreed it would be nice to do a full magazine review of a Nautilus.
I decided to send him this particular guitar because I was very excited about the tone of using swamp ash for the body wood on this classic, which would usually otherwise be a traditional Honduras Mahogany.
As we know mahogany is becoming scarcer and scarcer, and I have always loved the sound of swamp ash when used as it is most traditionally, in a bolt on guitar with single coils. So I thought lets give it a go with a set neck and a pair of humbuckers. And boy am I glad I did.
Swamp Ash has a very resonant characteristic naturally. It’s usually light weight, and when you tap it or knock it sounds very alive. That’s a pretty good place to start.
In this Nautilus set neck format, the Ash contributes to a very open and airy tone, it brings a fast attack to the notes but also and this caught me a little by surprise I’ll admit, it is also incredibly warm sounding. You can very comfortably go all the way from chiming cleans to thick, creamy lead sounds. Anway I won’t waffle on about it any more! You should read the review and hear what Chris has to say about it……
Thanks to The Guitar and Bass magazine for the support and for the fantastic 9/10 review and a Guitar choice award. I’m honoured.
Well worth picking up a copy or a subscription, it’s a great magazine, full of interesting content about all aspects of these things with strings we all love so much.
I’ll leave you with this quote –
“Seth Baccus’ love for his craft translates into a rare attention to detail, but we’re not talking about soulless perfection: there is a warm heart beating in the Nautilus and it’s a guitar that is as inspiring as it is toneful. It also has one of our favourite necks of the year and despite the undoubtedly bling-y boutique vibe of the rippling flame top and high gloss polyurethane finish, this still feels like a bona fide players guitar and no ornament- musically it opens doors and no mistake.”
