Matt Artinger Koa SS

Matt and I have been at this for twenty-five years now, going back to a Philadelphia guitar show where he showed up as a kid with talent nobody could miss. I've watched him work through a lot of ideas since then, and what I keep noticing is that he doesn't chase trends. He solves problems. The Koa SS is a good example of that.

The story here starts with David Gilmour. Matt has always been a fan, and this guitar was his chance to head in that tonal direction while putting his own spin on it. The mini-switch lets the neck pickup come in from any position, which adds two combinations a standard five-way will never give you: neck and bridge together, and all three at once. Those two positions are the ones Matt says he fell in love with, and I understand why. Neck and bridge on an S-style is a sound players have been chasing for decades, and having it here without a single modification is a real advantage. The three Lollar 64s are the right pickups for this job. Clear, bell-like, no icepick, and they hold together when you stack them.

Then there's the seamless neck, which Matt also builds into his Sidewinders. There's no heel. None. The neck flows into the body and you have the entire fingerboard available without your hand ever running into anything. Combine that with the dual carbon fiber reinforcement in the korina neck and you get stability plus access, which is not a combination most builders manage without adding bulk somewhere.

Korina sounds open and slightly airy on its own, and the 5A flamed koa bent top adds tightness and definition on the attack. The bent top isn't a cosmetic decision. It changes how the top responds, and you hear it. It's also a serious piece of work. Bending koa that heavily figured over a compound curve, without cracking it or losing the flame, is not something most builders will attempt. The way it wraps the horns and continues around the upper bout is seamless, and that thin dark line where the top meets the korina core runs dead consistent all the way around. No wander, no gaps. That detail alone tells you how the rest of the guitar was built.

The inlay is on another level. Matt says it started as a concept and evolved as he built the guitar, which is how most of his ideas seem to arrive, and you can see that in the result. It runs along both cutaway horns, up the fingerboard, and onto the headplate as one continuous design language rather than three separate ideas stuck on the same instrument. The abalone and mother-of-pearl are cut tight, the fills are invisible, and the shell was selected for color so the blues and greens flow instead of jumping. Matt's script logo sits on that Madagascar rosewood headplate with room to breathe.

The small things add up too. Madagascar rosewood pickup covers matched to the fingerboard and headplate, with the polepieces set clean and even. Knobs turned from the same wood. A Tesi LED momentary kill switch right where your hand falls if you do stutter work. The rear offset jack keeps your cable out of the way, and the hinged korina control cavity cover means you can get inside without hunting for a screwdriver, which sounds like a small thing until you've had to do it on a gig. Around back the korina is left open-grained and honest, letting the figure and mineral streaking speak for themselves.

This is one of a series of Super "ahem ahem" guitars Matt built at the same time, and it's the one that pulled me in. It gives you more options than most S-styles ever will, and it still plays like something you'd reach for without thinking about it. Twenty-five years in, he's still surprising me.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.

ABOUT ARTINGER GUITARS
Matt Artinger is one of those rare builders who pairs real engineering curiosity with genuine artistry, and it shows in every instrument that leaves his bench. What sets Matt apart is his range. He builds across the whole spectrum, acoustic and electric, solidbody and archtop, and does it all at a high level. His archtops with their unique designs, f-holes, and aesthetics are something special, and his use of rare woods and custom inlay turns each guitar into a work of art. He's forward-thinking, always pushing the design, but he stays rooted in the organic, earthy feel of the classics.