Solomon Phidelity 2013 - French Polish

Offering a rare and beautiful Solomon Phidelity 16-inch acoustic archtop guitar. This is a custom order featuring a carved Adirondack spruce top, highly figured dragon tongue maple back (one-piece) and sides, and curly mahogany neck. The maple and mahogany come from some of the same boards that Ken Parker has used on his $40,000 archtops—see the photos for an image of Parker cutting the maple for this very guitar. Old growth Brazilian rosewood was used for the 24.75" scale fretboard, non-adjustable bridge (adjustable one is included as well), and tailpiece.

Other specs include 1-11/16-inch nut, Waverly tuners with snakewood buttons, hand-rubbed French Polish finish, 19 stainless steel frets, soundport, curly maple binding, custom Tatsuta beta-titanium truss rod, and maple endpin hand-turned by luthier Martin Keith. Guitar boasts excellent playability and a nice, punchy sound—see Acoustic Guitar magazine’s website for a review by the guitar great Adam Levy of a similar model. Condition is excellent, with no play wear and a super clean finish overall.

The luthier has not updated his website in years, and says that the new base price is $12,500, but this example would cost a bit more, as it includes Brazilian rosewood components and a deluxe Hoffee flight case with cover. Please DM with any questions about this remarkable guitar.

Edit: Description from the maker: It is a very nice guitar that was built a little lighter than normal, with a one piece "dragon tongue" curly maple back that is mostly flat sawn and is very responsive especially with the lower tones. Adirondack spruce top, Brazilian rosewood fretboard, and super curly mahogany neck. It is very lightweight (without the tuners, I think that it was under 4 pounds), it has a Gibson 24.75" scale length. Very comfortable and easy to play guitar, that has excellent note articulation and is a great guitar to fingerpick. Although my tragically outdated website does not reflect it, I doubled my prices in 2022, and a current Phidelity is $12,500. Honestly, I personally put this guitar in the top 5 guitars that I have made for my own personal tone preferences.