‘Reina’ - 2023 Guitar of the year!

Every year we try to produce something really special. A guitar that showcases the best that we can do using the finest materials we can get our hands on.

This year we have knocked it out the park with a new guitar called Reina. Reina is an M12 - a size and design that has become our calling card and TSG’s signature sound. She has back and sides made from The Tree Mahogany, the legendary tonewood from the forests of what is now Belize with deep, rich quilted patterns and unusual density that gives it an incredible sound. Found and felled by a group of intrepid loggers in the 1960s, The Tree spent 10 years at the bottom of a ravine before Robert Novak was able to extract it.

Although the original tree was over 30 metres high and over 3.5 metres in diameter there are now very few sets left, so creating a guitar with this super rare wood is always a treat.

Paired with one of TSG’s favourite soundboard materials, Lucky Strike Redwood - another wood with a story.

After succumbing to a Californian storm, Lucky Strike was found and harvested by Craig and Alica Carter. What makes it a truly incredible soundboard is its stiffness to weight ratio and its straight grain with a lot of cross-grain silk, which gives it a warm, clear sound with added sparkle!

We blended it with Brazilian Rosewood trim throughout for the fingerboard, bridge and bindings all from one billet, so it’s all beautifully matched.

For the decorative elements we went for something a bit different to anything we’ve done before.

We have an Art Deco motif, something requested by the client, designed by long time collaborator Faye Laura. She incorporated the customer’s monogram into the headstock and the evil eye motif, another request from the client.

The evil eye is something you see across the Mediterranean and Middle East. Dating back over 5000 years, the evil eye is said to ward off evil and provide protection. It was also a popular symbol during the Art Deco period when there was a lot of interest in the geometry of the ancient world.

This guitar is also special for us in that it is the first guitar that we finished ourselves in-house after taking Michel Pellerin’s masterclass.

We challenged ourselves to create a tobacco burst on the back of the Cuban Mahogany neck as a nod to the client’s involvement in the world of fine cigars, a Cuban Tobacco burst if you will.

Named after a prestigious cigar, rolled in the famous Laguito factory in Havana, La Reina - The Queen - Reina is truly majestic.