Design Origins-the Spirit of the Wind Custom Guitar
I’d like to share with you some of the design origins of the Spirit of the Wind Custom Guitar.
Built and designed as a triumph of guitar tone and craftsmanship, we receive endless compliments from our clients who became “Spirit” addicts…So in this article I’d like to share with you another aspect of this unique handmade electric guitar.
This is not just about the design, but also about the hidden symbolism and meaning. Most of the people out there look at this guitar and immediately compare it to the endless 20 something years of fake “relic” or “road worn” guitars. You know, that Tele with the fake scratches and worn paint/finish. Some call it “rustic” and a few even went and uttered the term “Steam Punk”. Seriously??
This guitar was first “dreamt” upon a visit to the Rosh HaNikara Grottoes.
Rosh HaNikra or Hanikra in Hebrew means “Head of the Grottoes”; is a geologic formation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Western Galilee. It is a white chalk cliff face which opens up into spectacular grottos.
My visit to the Rosh HaNikara Grottoes-the place where The Spirit of the Wind Custom Guitar was “dreamt”.
The Rosh HaNikra grottoes are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock, and during that visit, when I’ve heard the wind yelling through the tunnels, and saw the striking turquoise of the sea I wanted to create a guitar that will be able to capture and transfer this phenomenal experience.
This guitar was designed to symbolize an ancient sea vessel, perhaps the ancient Phoenician boats of the region. The winged lady on the tailpiece is a homage to The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), described “the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture”, and it also represents the muses of the ancient world.
The guitar is super lightweight hollow body pine with a Port Orford cedar neck. The use of these woods symbolizes an ancient sea vessel. We use Allepo Pine for our Spirit of the Wind and Cedar for our Thunder Child. These woods were used in the ancient boats of the region.
The aged handmade hardware is oxidized for two reasons.
Brass contains zinc and copper. The oxidation process brings out the beautiful turquoise color of the oxidized copper. This metal was used in ancient Egyptian boats, and the copper mines in the south of Israel were famous for the high-quality metal that was produced there.
In the ancient region of the middle east, blue was considered a sacred color with protective attributions that was used to cast out evil spirits. The priests in the temple in Jerusalem used to wear clothes that were weaved with dyed blue wool. The light blue color (tekhelet) was produced from Murex trunculus sea snails and the procedure was unique to this region.
We oxidize our handmade Spirit of the Wind guitar hardware to create this turquoise blue which was a symbol of divine protection in ancient times.
Blue stones like the Lapis Lazuli were used by the ancient Egyptian royalty and were way more precious than gold.
For the guitar finish, I created the “wind erosion” finish which mimics the look of an ancient boat, consumed by the salty water and the wind.
The hollow body construction was designed to create a unique tone that has a spectecular acoustic effect, and on higher levels of volume will feedback easily and will make the “wind” sing through the strings.
All in all, it is a symbol of your own journey and your own adventure.