Guitars, Basses and Ukuleles
by
Rick Turner
The Renaissance line of guitars and basses has never been
"for everybody". Rick Turner has designed and built each
model to fill a specific need. You won't see these guitars
in every club, at every studio and on every stage...instead
you'll find them in the hands of a few discriminating
performers who have discovered that they can solve
real-world problems with intelligent, superbly musical
solutions.
The
Renaissance Semi-Acoustic Guitar and Bass
concept is simple.
No matter how unplugged you appear, the truth is that your
acoustic sound must be electronically sensed and amplified
for recording or live performance. Taking a dreadnought
shaped instrument and sticking on a pickup isn't the
answer...unless you want to kill off a great deal of
frequency spectrum to avoid the inevitable feedback!
Rick Turner has designed the ultimate answer to the
unplugged dilemma: How can we produce premium acoustic tone
as an amplifiable recodable electronic signal? This goal
dictated every facet of the design, from the premium
electronics to the solid centre block crafted into the
thinline body. The end result is something you have to hear
to believe...beautiful acoustic tone at the output jack
ready to record or amplify!
The Renaissance Semi-Acoustic Guitars
These
guitars serve the very real need to reproduce
full-frequency acoustic tone in electronic recording and
performance settings - a job that, ironically, true
acoustics are not cut out for! The thinline body is built
like a fine acoustic guitar, but with an added mahogany
center block to cut feedback. A Turner piezo bridge pickup
feeds full-spectrum signals to an 18-volt DTAR Timberline
pre-amp. Available in 6-string steel or nylon classical,
12-string steel, and 6 or 12-string
baritone.
The
Renaissance Semi-Acoustic Basses
These
basses provide a rich palette of tones from realistic
upright to cutting rock. Compared to traditional basses,
they deliver a much broader frequency range, allowing a
variety of expression limited only by your fingers. Models
include 4-string 34" scale and 5-string 35" scale with
fretted or fretless fingerboards. Thomastik-Infeld
Acousticore strings deliver melodic, punchy tones right
down to a thunderous low B. As with the guitar versions
these basses use the DTAR 18-volt Timberline preamp. All
this in a package that weighs less than 5.5
lbs!
The
Electroline Basses
The
Electroline series is designed to be the most flexible
solid-body bass in your collection. It's secret is the
Turner "Reference" piezo bridge system, which provides an
individual under-saddle pickup for each string. This system
provides such a broad frequency spectrum that many players
use it alone; however, you can mix enhanced traditional
tones into your sound as well with the addition of Turner
"Diamond" or soapbar magnetic pickups. Models include
4-string 34" scale and 5-string 35" scale with fretted or
fretless fingerboards. This bass will deliver 'P', 'J',
'MM' and 'modern' tones and beyond to satisfy the most
demanding bass junkie!
The
Model T Guitar
The
Formica-topped solid body was built to cry the blues. Its
strong retro vibe combines influences from the late 20's
Kay Kraft designs, 30's electronics and 50's design
sensibilities. But it's not just skin deep - the Turner
"Rick" double-horseshoe pickup delivers accurate vintage
lead tones through modern electronics, and an "all controls
bypass" switch serves up a direct, load-free signal to the
output jack. Slide and bottle-neck players swear the T's
tone was designed just for them.
The
Model 1 Guitar
Ever
since Lindsey Buckingham took delivery of #79-003, the
Model One guitar has been highly sought after for its
combination of Old World aesthetics and modern, full-bodied
tonal range. Played clean, it sounds incredibly
acoustic and detailed. But when the volume kicks up,
it screams louder and longer than any guitar you've
played...without unwanted feedback or
breakup.
The
Compass Rose Ukulele
Find
your way home with a Compass Rose Ukulele. The highlight of
these Ukuleles is their availability in Walnut or Santa
Cruz Sycamore. During development, Rick stated that "it was
a real surprise how good both woods sounded, neither one
considered a traditional tone wood."
NEW!
The Compass Rose Series of Guitars
With
these exciting new Compass Rose Guitars, Rick Turner is
proving again why he’s a leader in the field of
string instrument design and research and these instruments
offer action-adjustable neck and floating fingerboard,
flying butress internal bracing, and a sound port. Truly
beautiful instruments to play.
New DVD Series on Luthiers Featuring Rick
Turner
Here's
a teaser of an upcoming DVD from Gourmet Guitars that has
Rick ranting and raving on it.
There's some DTAR Mama Bear on it, some Renaissance talk,
and some of Rick's son Elias showing off the prototype
Compass Rose uke Rick made him.
Check out these links:
http://www.gourmet-guitars.com/video.asp?mofile=turner_vol_2_teaser.mov
http://gourmet-guitars.com/video.asp?mofile=Turner_MamaBear.mov
Enjoy!
