Avalon Ard Ri A8 - Black Oak

Avalon Ard R1 A8-Black Oak

This new arrival from Avalon Guitars in Northern Ireland is an exquisitely built mid sized guitar, featuring an Italian Alpine Spruce top with some bear claw figuring over a set of 5300 year old Sunken Oak harvested from a bog in the coastal region of England. The nicely contrasting wood combination on this unique guitar is not only stunning to look at - it also produces a rich and lush tone with sustain that goes on forever, and note separation and clarity up and down the fretboard! This guitar is part of the 'Ard Ri' line of Avalon Guitars - Ard Ri is a Gaelic phrase meaning 'High King'.Bog Oak (aka Black Oak) is a unique and rare tone wood which obviously cannot be replaced! We can provide an article which details how this wood was discovered, harvested and processed. 

This guitar is ENTIRELY crafted by hand - no CNC equipment has been used in it's construction. It is gorgeously dressed with Snakewood binding and multilayered Maple and Mahogany purfling. You'll see Snakewood used for the end pin wedge, nice accented with Maple purfling. The back strip is also Snakewood with Maple and Mahogany purfling. 

The 5 piece neck is Mahogany with a Black Oak and Maple center. It's cross construction makes it virtually warp proof. It is built with a Bi-Flex Gotoh truss rod. The tuners are butter smooth Gotoh SE780's with Ebony buttons.

Black Oak is used for the heel cap and headstock facing. The woods are protected by a Nitro-cellulose satin finish. Comes with a high quality hard shell Hiscox case as pictured.

The bridge, bridge pins and fingerboard are Ebony. The fretboard binding is Ebony with a Maple accent. The nut and saddle are Ox Bone. 

Nut width is 1.73".
String spacing at the saddle 2.25".
Scale length is 25.5".
Lower Bout width 16".
Upper Bout width 11.8".
Body depth at End Pin 4-3/4".
Body length 20-1/2".