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.- These are the most fun yet challenging.
The asymmetric shape and oval theme where worked-out first, but the -horn- idea had to appear on its own:
- 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... -Voilà-. It all came into place, as something not prior intended.
The -horn-theme, bot visual and acoustic, has been re-visited in Thierry's practice many times since.
