Description
The Tao Guitar's Phaeton is a fine instrument that will appeal to both the player and collector alike. The design is a modern take on the classic carved- top, electric archtop guitar. It is an inspiring instrument with a plethora of great tones, eye catching details and easy play-ability up and down the neck. The "Villa D'Este" is in our opinion Tao's most striking example of the Phaeton yet. Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este is a high-end car show that takes place yearly in Italy. Between this and the Phaeton name being a staple in the world of early high-end cars; the Phaeton "Villa D’Este" was the name given to this particular piece.
The Phaeton was designed as a 15" fully hollow carved archtop that can sound just as sweet overdriven as it does clean. The style of carving, bracing and internal routing are all done in a way so that the guitar wont feedback unpleasantly at high volumes or gain levels. You can press on an overdrive pedal mid song and not have to worry about boomy feedback like with most carved-top archtops. The methods used to make this instrument capable of being played at higher gain settings does not negatively impact the guitars tone in any way. Last thing to note on feedback is that while you won't get any un-wanted feedback, you can still easily conjure up controlled feedback which can be incredibly fun.
At 5lbs 11oz the Tao Phaeton "Villa D'Este" is a beautifully balanced and lightweight guitar. Like with every part of Tao's instruments, weight distribution was very important to get just right. You'll notice this guitar sits just right on your knee or on a strap with ease and without any neck or body dive.
The tonal properties of the Spruce and Mahogany hollow construction are rich and sweet acoustically with nice volume, though like an L-5CES this guitar is meant to be played plugged in, which is where it truly shines. The pickup is a proprietary Tao design wound by Benedetti Pickups. Tao calls it their "Large Ribbon" Pickup. This particular example is a floating version so not to touch the top of the guitar. It is an asymmetrically wound humbucker with the ability to be split three different ways and without much of a drop in volume when split.
The tone can be described as a low output PAF mixed with a vintage Gold-Foil pickup. It has a nice amount of sparkle with a beautiful airiness and clear note definition as well as great string separation. In humbucking mode it sounds the most like a traditional humbucker, it is very warm and articulate with bold lows and a nice hint of evenly distributed mid-range. When flicking the 3-way toggle to the left you are now playing a single-coil, this is the coil closest to the neck, for a warmer split-pickup tone, a great way to tame some of the mids and decrease bass. With the toggle switch moved closest to the bridge you are only utilizing the coil closest to the bridge. This position is great for cutting through a mix overdriven or clean and getting the most treble response out of the pickup. It is more sparkling with even less bass and mid-range. All three positions sound incredible and having the ability to alter the bass and treble response along with the volume and tone controls, makes for a very versatile single pickup guitar.
Those who appreciate the guitar as an artform and are looking for the best in playability, aesthetics and functionality, will not be disappointed in this beautiful one of a kind piece by Tao Guitars. You can read more about how Tao developed the Phaeton below the specs.
Model Name: Phaeton "Villa D’Este"
Body size: 15” wide
Body Material: Mahogany
Top Material: Spruce
Neck Material: Mahogany
Neck Shape: C Round Asymmetrical (Flatter on the Treble Side)
Fretboard Material: Ebony
Headstock Veneer: Ebony
Binding Material: Acrylic
Finish: Thin Urethane
Scale Length: 24 3/4"
Fretboard Radius: 12"
Nut Width: 0.0305555555555556
Frets: 22 Nickel Silver Medium Jumbo, Custom Tao Fretting (Jumbo Until the 12th then Smaller Until the End)
Inlays: "Gauge Panel" Type Pinted Side Dots
Bridge: Ebony & Bone Adjustable "Jimmy D’Aquisto Style" Machined Aluminum Tailpiece
Pickups: One Neck Large "Ribbon" Humbucker
Switch: 3 Pos
Tuners: Gotoh "Stealth"
Case: SKB 1 Series with Custom Shape Foam
Tao on the Phaeton model:
This project started out in 2009 as a cure for a friend & customer who was diagnosed with a very acute form of the G.A.S (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).
We offered to make him a unique masterpiece that would both calm his illness and at the same time bring us the opportunity to build our dream guitar with a “carte blanche”. The whole idea was to build a hollow jazz – guitar that could handle high volume feedback in a more compact rounded ergonomic body with a solid body style sustain…
Orville Gibson’s “Style 03” guitar being one of our fave, with its anthropomorphic visual and its experimental crafting method made it the most exotic vintage guitar in our eyes – some kind of mythical piece of craft, a milestone in Guitar History. This gave us the guiding conceptual direction for our “Phaeton”.
As explained by Lewis Williams in the first 1903 catalog “front and back made in swelled shape by being carved, leaving the layer grain of the wood in the same position as in its natural growth, thus insuring strength, free vibration, and unusual sympathetic resonance” or “special relatedness and agreements of parts”.
Our other major influence being automotive design In all its forms, car styling aesthetics are obvious here, from the two tone color scheme to the sound – holes bearing air intake visual reference, the whole thing breathing our love for the golden years of American Car Design.
The “Phaeton” name has always been synonymous with class and luxury in the automobile history.
The models from the 30’s & 40’s are the most striking examples with the likes of Cadillac, Chrysler, Cord, Packard…
After several brainstorming sessions, and the drawings that resulted, we could finally take to our workbenches with heart. As mentioned earlier, we decided to build the guitar as were built Orville’s style 03 : hand carved out of two solid slabs of wood, spruce for the top & mahogany for the back (most of Orville’s were in walnut)
Here we are embarked on a long and exciting journey,carving the top in this nutshell fashion. The shape of the top’s face that was quite a challenge, as we couldn’t easily work around it with our caliper, we decided to bring the piece to correct thickness using the spotlight technique : reducing differences in color shades by checking the top over a light source. From scraping to the final sanding,
this process took us almost 200 hours to complete and a thousand more to finish the whole instrument… putting our love & passion in the slightest details, from the custom made pot buttons, the handmade ebony carbon layered tailpiece to our magnet locked lexan back plates. Every single part was either custom made or at least customized to our standards ( see specs ).
A year and a half later, we were finally able to hear the thing! This was the most emotional moment of all! The Phaeton’s sound was as bold as was striking its looks, leaning toward Gretsch character but with a real voice of its own, smooth sparkling highs and super tight and rich basses, the tuning – fork – bar design giving amazing sustain. Although the Phaeton comes in a hot jazz drapings, this guitar could also unleash a more rockin’ attitude when pushed, which was really pleasant to us!