Zyra
Credit photos: Nassim Aboutanos
Zyra -
Holow-body electric guitar, 2001 - Andre Instruments no 12
Dimensions: 101 x 37.5 x 8.5 cm
Scale length:648mm
Neck width @ nut 44mm
String spacing @ bridge 52mm
Body length total : 53.15 cm
Soundboard: Sugar maple, vacuum dried
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Back&sides: Honduran mahogany
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Neck: Honduran mahogany, 2-way adjustable truss-rod
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Fretboard: Gabon ebony, with bleached moose horn inlay
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Headstock: Gabon ebony, with mother-of-pearl -Z- inlay
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Bridge: Bleached moose horn
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Tailpiece: Gabon ebony, with steel wire
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Tuning machines: Schaller
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Nut and Saddle: bleached cow bone
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Finish: Tung oil and copal varnish
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Pickups: K&K pure mini, Seymour Duncan Stack Strat
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Strings: D'addario EXL110, nickel and steel
Collection Teti, New Hampshire, USA
Zyra is probably the guitar that that was the most informative about guitar design, or about design in general.
It was first commissioned by a Montreal guitarist and collector, who clearly stated that -He wanted something that he had never seen.-
The asymmetric shape and oval theme where worked-out first, but the -horn- idea came by accident, or work:
Out of nowhere, or out of luck, the plastic -oval- template was found just at the right spot on the paper, merging with parts of the drawing partly erased. And... -boom-. It all came into place, as something not prior intended.
This now acoustic horn (literally) theme would thus follow André, as his current projects Echoes of Time, is clearly influenced by the making of Zyra.
Zyra 2 was recently drawn:
Its new outline, while being very close to the original, features a little wider body, a more open cutaway access, and a tighter curve around the lap for additional ergonomics.
It is designed for more -air- inside the box, and can thus be built more like a true archtop guitar.
All possibilities are still open on this one.