Marchione Uni-Body Carve Top 2018

Condition: This minty Stephen Marchione Uni-Body came straight out of a collection. It is in the same condition as when it first left our shop in 2018.

Craig’s POV: Stephen’s Uni-body model is a very special guitar. It’s one that you simply can’t order. The reason is that Marchione only builds this rare model when he finds the perfect piece of wood. And I mean perfect in every way. You can imagine how rare it is to find a single piece of wood perfect enough to carve into a complete guitar. Add to that: there is no room for error in the crafting of a Uni-body. One misplaced carve, one slip of the chisel, even a nick in the headstock, and the whole project is ruined. Bill Evans writes about a particular kind of Japanese calligraphy on the liner notes to “Kind of Blue”. There’s no room for erasures, no room for error, no going back. This guitar is exactly like that. As Stephens says, it really takes his 30 years of luthier skills to birth one of these beauties. In the last 10 years, he has only made 6 of them.

It’s a stunning piece of work. Poplar is a great tone word, particularly when it’s torrefied, which gives it additional stability and a sweet vintage tone. There is no compromise to its resonance because of any glue joints. Why? because it doesn’t have any. Other than the ebony fingerboard, the guitar is built out of one beautiful, superbly carved and finished, singular piece of wood.

In Stephen’s words, “There is no energy loss. Every note you play rings true, just like when you play baseball and the bat hits the ball perfectly. You know it’s a homer on impact. It’s a beautiful thing”.

From the custom electronics to the finely carved vintage feeling neck, this guitar is rare, beautiful, toneful and alive. If you are into fine boutique S style electrics, this Uni-body is next level stuff.

No fancy inlays here, no crazy colors, just amazing wood and superb craftsmanship.

Body Wood : Torrefied Poplar Body Option : Uni-Body Neck Wood : Torrefied Poplar with Ebony Fretboard Radius : 12" Radius Frets : Stainless Steel Nut Width : 1 11/16 inch (42.9mm) Bridge : Wilkinson VSVG Vintage Tremolo Neck Pickup : Tone Specific 65 Custom Single Coil Middle Pickup : Tone Specific 65 Custom Single Coil Bridge Pickup : Tone Specific Virtuoso Custom Humbucker Control : Volume, Tone, 5-Way Color : tinted lacquer with reds and browns Weight: 6.9 lbs Case : Custom Calton Case