Versoul Swan Price 1,889£ Ver-who? We’ve featured Kari Nieminen’s guitars before, but as one of the top custom guitar makers in the world we always have time for another. ARI NIEMINEN’S The Rivals Spec Check DIVERSE range of Versoul SWAN KVersoul acoustic, electric, Versoul’s distinctive style is classical nylon and six and quite unique, but British makers PRICE: £1,889 (with case) ORI- 12-string sitars now reside in a such as GUS Guitars (01435 GIN: Finland TYPE: Single-cuta- number of professional hands, 863048) offer a similar original way, arched-top hollow-body elec- including Crispian Mills, Golden vision with their solidbody tric BOOM Laminated curly maple Earring, Amancio Prada (top range. If it’s top-notch custom top and back; solid curly maple Spanish guitarist), Geoff Levin semis that interest you contact sides NECK: One-piece mahog- (Hollywood film composer) and KGB Guitars (0151647 3268) any, set-neck SCALE LENGTH: Terry Britten (Tina Turner’s and Poole Custom Guitars 635mim (25-inch) NUTWIDTH: producer/songwriter). In Los (01634 220817). Moose shin bone/43mm FIN- Angeles, top studio-rental man GERBOARD: Ebony, MOP/leaf Andy Brauer has added Versoul placed mother-of-pearl finger- gold markers, 305mm (12-inch) to his featured products. Versoul board markers and those pickups. radius Frets: 22, medium Hard- was made Industrial Designer of The rivals ware: Grover Imperial tuners, the Year, by the Association of Like it or not, Versoul has charac- Gotoh tune-o-matic/ebony-foot Finnish Industrial Designers in ter. But don’t dismiss this guitar bridge, Bigsby vibrato STRING 1998, and one of the guitars was as an art-house project. You don’t SPACING: Bridge: 52mm featured in a special stamp edi- have to be a professional guitarist ELECTRICS: Two Versoul tion showcasing Finnish design to appreciate that style aside, this single-coils, threeway toggle in 1999. So why are these guitars is a superbly crafted piece. The pickup selector switch, so special? beautiful mahogany neck - with volume and tone for each Style is everything. Some highly gold leaf side ‘dot’ motifs - is emi- pickup. WEIGHT (Kg/Lb) eclectic influences are immedi- nently playable; the fingerboard 2.84/6.25 OPTIONS: COL- ately obvious in this hollow-bod- and fretting first class. OURS: pearloid pickguard, ied Swan. Made from laminated Hardware is top-notch. We’re trussrod coverplate and curly maple with solid curly maple treated to Grover Imperial tuners pickup mounting rings emerald sides, the medium depth (60mm with unique T-shaped buttons, green, Rubin red, pearloid brown, at the rim) hollow body features a proper Bigsby vibrato and tortoiseshell. RANGE OPTIONS: a single, rounded ‘Venetian’ Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge that Versoul’s electrics start with the cutaway. internal kerfed linings sits on a floating ebony base. Raya Baritone (£870); the Raya loud levels, but that’s the down- are tidy, the top is reinforced by Versoul’s single-coil pickups, with 12-string baritone and Henry; a side of the resonant hollow-body. two braces and the back with a those perforated and chromed Les Paul-inspired electric with Kari’s distinctive style, married larger single brace, but there’s no metal covers, may look like sci-fi real gold leaf or platinum finish, with top-class guitar building centre-block or bridge post. tea-strainers but the wiring is con- (both £940). LEFT-HANDERS: skills, and a sensible price, make Contrasting the light amber- ventional, with a horn-mounted Yes FINISHES: Vintage am- this beautiful Swan a worthy tinted, nitro-cellulose finish are three-way toggle selector, pickup ber (reviewed), other colours choice. Any lower volume styles: the mahogany and birch bindings volumes and a master tone. on request CONTACT: Email: jazz, around the top and back edges, Birdsong versoul@kolumbus.fi A circular moon motif in gold and along the edges of the ebony The Swan has reasonable acous- leaf appears on the back and fingerboard. This contrasting am- tic projection with a typical, muted midrange bite of the tighter and headstock blues, country and ber/red-brown theme is echoed high-end, strong midrange and more direct bridge pickup. The rockabilly, are effortless. by the distinctive plastic laminate quite resonant bass. The sound Bigsby holds its tuning well, al- Dave Burrluck pickguard, pickup rings and truss seems to combine the fullness lowing the Swan to cover country, VERSOUL SWAN rod cover, while the headstock and mellow attitude of a Gibson rockabilly or those sixties-era BUILD QUALITY is faced with a similarly coloured hollow-body with the slight raw- twangy film themes just add tape- PLAYABILITY cocobolo rosewood veneer. Note ness, bite and unpredictability of delay and reveb The single tone SOUND the tip of the head: a multi-lami- a vintage Gretsch hollow-body. control can tame the highs for a VALUE FOR MONEY nate of the same mahogany and The neck pickup sounds broody, more muted lounge-jazz tone, but VERDICT WE LIKED birch veneers add to the distinc- but its not too sombre; the dual a master volume on the upper Originality, Build Quality, Sound tive appearance. pickup mix creates that almost shoulder could help performance Quality and Playability More obvious are the angular, elastic-sounding snappy bass as access to the twin pickup vol- WE DISLIKED modernistic and neatly wood- and soft attack of a Gretsch and umes is impeded by the vibrato A master volume may help on bound soundholes, the uniquely is contrasted by the noticeable arm. Feedback is problematic at stage use GUITARIST NOVEMBER 2000.