Zucali

Ensemble

I don't know a string quartet with four violins or a choir consisting only of sopranos ... and there's a reason for that! With different vocal registers the music becomes more multi-faceted, different timbres come to light, which well used music brings to life!

In the meantime there are instruments, that are slowly establishing themselves, others are completely unknown. Larger ensembles sometimes use octave or bass octave guitars. Yet baritone (quint-bass), terz or quint guitars are virtually unknown, even though they sound wonderful in an ensemble or played solo. Giuliani even wrote a Concerto in F-major for terz guitar.

“The baritone guitar of Daniel Zucali is one of the most incredible instruments I have ever played.”

Bob Bonastre

Model

Santino

Tuning

a e c G D A,

Scale

690mm/720mm

Neck width

48mm/58mm

Top

Ceder

Back / Sides

Yew

Neck

Maple

Fingerboard

Ziricote

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Inspection port

central

Armrest

Yes

Pickup

Special production Udo Roesner

Year of construction

2022

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

In early June 2022, I went with my friend Christian to the Kunsthaus Weiz (in Austria) to a concert, from one of the world's most renowned jazz musicians, whose career spans half a century. We wanted to experience his musical magic in a live concert setting.
It was a long journey to the concert hall, so we left early in the day. This way we could spend some time there and scope things out. Maybe it is possible to exchange a few words with him. In the very best and most unlikely case, we'd even get a comment about one of my instruments.
We knew because of Corona he had to take special care to stay healthy! Therefore, we were even more surprised that the most unlikely case happened, and in the best possible way.
He asked his tour manager to bring him Christians Baritone guitar (I built) backstage to try it out.
He liked Christians fifth bass guitar so much that he invited us to talk to him after the wonderful concert. "Finding a nylon-string baritone guitar that works for me, is like the quest for the Holy Grail" he said. Apparently Christians guitar was the closest thing that he found to the "Holy Grail!"

So I built a custom guitar for him (with Half Nashville tuning) which arrived mid-January 2023 in NY. He texted me right the next morning that he immediately played four hours straight and the guitar is fantastic!

What are his plans with this instrument? We don't know, but hopefully we'll soon find out!

This guitar has two special features:

First, I've installed a modified Udo Rösner pickup for this guitar. It uses the #hash as a basis. Udo removed the microphone and put a tone control in its place. It functions sort of like the old Ovation pickups from the 70s and 80s.

And the second special feature...

Very good acoustic instruments are extremely sensitive to feedback when amplified. I managed to create a removable dampening rod, to reduce the vibration mode of the soundboard that is mainly responsible for this. Taking the rod in and out can be done in a matter of minutes and transforms the guitar from a wonderful acoustic guitar into an amplified instrument suitable for the bigger stages.

Model

Santino

Tuning

a e c G D A´

Scale

720mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Service tree

Neck

Mahagony

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2021/22

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

Model

Santino

Tuning

c g es Bb F C´

Scale

680mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Service tree

Neck

Mahagony

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2021/22

For sale pricing on request

Model

Santino

Tuning

a e c G D A´

Scale

690mm/720mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Ceder

Back / Sides

Yew

Neck

Cedro

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2021/22

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

Model

Santino

Tuning

c g es Bb F C´

Scale

680mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Ceder

Back / Sides

Amaranth

Neck

Cedro

Fingerboard

Ebony

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2021/22

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

Model

Santino Quint

Tuning

b' fis' d' a e B

Scale

440mm / 460mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Chequers Tree

Neck

Tiger Maple

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Year of construction

2019

For sale pricing on request

This quint guitar was created by request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to play a piece with a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in normal tuning and a quint bass guitar which was composed especially for this instrumentation by Freya Arde and can now also be seen and heard in a video.
A small peculiarity ... The backs of these guitars are in one piece which is very rare to find and there are three pieces that were sawed directly next to each other from the tree. Siblings in the truest sense of the word.

Model

Santino Terz

Tuning

g’ d’ b♭ f c G

Scale

550mm / 570mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Chequers Tree

Neck

Tiger Maple

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Closeable installation hole

central

Year of construction

2018

For sale pricing on request

This terz guitar was created by request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to play a piece with a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in normal tuning and a quint bass guitar which was composed especially for this instrumentation by Freya Arde and can now also be seen and heard in a video.
A small peculiarity ... The backs of these guitars are in one piece which is very rare to find and there are three pieces that were sawed directly next to each other from the tree. Siblings in the truest sense of the word.

Model

Santino Quintbass

Tuning

a e c G D A´ E´

Scale

690mm/720mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Chequers Tree

Neck

Tiger Maple

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Inspection port

central

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2018

For sale pricing on request

This quint bass guitar was created by request of the Delta Guitar Quartet. The plan was to play a piece with a quint guitar, a third guitar, a guitar in normal tuning and a quint bass guitar which was composed especially for this instrumentation by Freya Arde and can now also be seen and heard in a video.
A small peculiarity ... The backs of these guitars are in one piece which is very rare to find and there are three pieces that were sawed directly next to each other from the tree. Siblings in the truest sense of the word.

Model

Santino Quintbass

Tuning

a e c G D A´

Scale

720mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

52mm/62mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Purpleheart

Neck

Cedro

Fingerboard

Ebony

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2018

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

Model

Santino Quintbass

Number of string

7

Tuning

a e c G D A´ E´

Scale

720mm

Neck width(nut / 12th fret)

59,8mm/69,8mm

Top

Spruce

Back / Sides

Apple

Neck

Nut

Fingerboard

Plum

Painting

matte

Tuners

Scheller

Inspection port

central

Armrest

Yes

Year of construction

2018

ASK FOR NEW ORDER

Quint bass guitars (baritone guitars) were frequently found and have been quite popular around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Why these guitars disappeared completely in the turmoil of the two world wars is a mystery to me. Slowly but surely they find their place in the guitar family once again. I appreciate the special sound character of these guitars. The sound is warm, supporting and can be modulated at any volume. This type of guitar is wonderful to play as a solo instrument and is an absolute enrichment for any ensemble. For this guitar Michael decided to choose only native woods and add a 7th string to complete the guitar with a low e-string. In order to be able to play in the big band or to play together with accordion and other louder instruments, we have installed a pickup.