NK Forster Session King tenor guitar on offer. Base specs exactly the same as the one in the fabled Kimber video (a.k.a. "THAT video") ~ khaya mahogany back and side, cedrela top, all that ~ with some custom upgrades and rare tweaks to the SK program ~ backstrap, side soundport, ebony fretboard, pick-stitch herringbone inlay at the rosette, and black tuner buttons.
Finished and delivered November 2017 during Nigel's last Leipzig season, if you're really burning for that "Saxony" maker's mark. For US lookers this one's already pulled across the pond, customs and all.
You likely found this listing looking exactly for this instrument, or the make - and understand you are looking at the state of the art, a dark star of invention, collapsing and recombining categories and what's possible. This instrument is a breakthrough in the Forster lineage of L O U D, and tenor really only in its number of strings, a world-beater that suits
- Crossing over seamlessly from trad bouzouki, cittern, and 4-5 coursers with a state of the art kit that lives up to its name ~ overthrowing the pub and proscenium regime and hearing the crowd commend "I hereby crown thee Session King!"
- Extending your tenor guitar game into new tunings (and the SOTA kit)
- and my wheelhouse, drifting away from its home shore ------
- All about three chords and the truth, and triaging the melodic and harmonic extraneties, say, of a six string guitar - getting down to drone-chord-melody and unleashing profound energy there
- Looking to bash your way through the livelier tunes of Martin Carthy's Shearwater or Joni Mitchell's Blue - all immediate magic, no friction
- Obsessing over and accessing the energy the tenor guitar finds in its later American indie contexts ~ Neko Case, Freedy Johnston, et al making great hay w/ the 4string at times in the early aughts, and the foundation stone of Jason Molina's melancholic take on the truer sound ~ from Song:Ohia's "Cabwaylingo" forward, from which some of the best songwriting of this century cascaded
24.75" scale length. I play in fiddle crosstunings GDGD, ADAD, GDAD, DDAD, etc., that I picked up as a banjo frailer and sometime fiddle sawyer walking the Diller~Hammons line, more than CGDA and fifths tunings ~ and find this scale length quite optimal for the cause.
Re headstock veneer and backstrap, says the maker: "Apart from looking nice, it's the best insurance policy against a head snapping off you can get."
Soundport projects the sound to the player so they're in on the sonics that usually are advantage audience.
It is an SK ~ the soak of the finish yields a more tactile wood texture, and there is some artifacting exposed that a nitro fill literally would gloss over. This is hand-craft at its most maximal. Also has a magnetic truss rod access cover and zero-fret for perfected intonation. Also dig the banjo-referent headstock shape. The neck shape is exceedingly inviting and the guit-zouk derived body shape its own ergonomic marvel.
Mint condition - basically new. Has about 12 hours time under the thumb since receipt. Temperature and humidity environment vigilantly attended to.
The soundclip from yours truly likely doesn't do the instrument any favors, but there it is. Conversely, the better angels of the SK tenor expressed - courtesy of Nigel and Tom Kimber - here (it's Nigel's video and didn't want to claim it for a direct Reverb link)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=trSkUnZEP7c
I'd have to admit that this video bewitched me - the SK tenor under a profound dynamic path, those bends at the dusty end! Sings! - was what sold me on commissioning a build. There's years of backstory and good hunting that's threaded through Nigel's YouTube page and workshop blog if the make or the SK tenor kit is terra incognita for you.
For a couple of years now Nigel has found great traction in the four-stringer he's calling a tenor guitar. More an evolution of his guitar-bouzouki design and its Celtic-player lineage ~ that fully realizes the sonic promise of those kits through simplifying the features, and introducing his latest innovations under the hood ~ than a direct descendant of a tenor guitar from, say, the 1920s. Excels strummed, particularly if your game is to churn reel and raga. As gobsmack as all his kits are, there's a teardown simplicity to the SK tenor that recommends it as a flagship piece. This is a true battleship (in the bantam-sized guitzouk-derived box), moreso than any namesake Dreadnought guit.
This isn't just a banjo killer. It's called the Session King for a reason - it smokes everything in the room. Though it looks somewhat familiar, Nigel invented something wholly new whose potential, I think, is unexplored across many genres of music and wells of repertoire - that can pull 6string guitar players, 5string banjo, and anyone versatile in the 4course family of mandolins, citterns, et cetera in its gravitational field - and for which there is no competition yet - capable of raw power, lingering rake, sustain that could carry a payload out of the atmosphere. To paraphrase Marty Dibergi of This is Spinal Tap, it has a distinguished place in lutherie history as one of England's loudest instruments.
I am entranced by its sustain, and (as someone who originally commissioned this build to act as creative foil, coax nuances against the 5string banjo and 6string guitar) its potential to refract tunes and tunings and hear new inflections to cross over to the five and six string game.
$3900 yields an as-new mint NK Forster SK-tenor around ca. 2016 base pricing, no wait list, no US inbound customs, and the considerable (for the SK line) custom options/upgrades. Using Reverb's shipping estimator (for the first time) in posting this particular listing ~ it'll ship CONUS as swiftly as the rate yields and using Reverb's Shipping Protection. I typically insist on 3-day or faster shipping options. If you're other than CONUS, maybe we can work something out - drop me a line before considering buying. Local pickup on offer for Washington DC area, and also Charleston SC if schedules overlap. Includes the Hiscox case, which unlike some of Nigel's other designs with their unique geometries, actually fits accurately in the case.
