2004 Bert Kwakkel "Merula 640" SP/CSAR
| Year | 2004 |
| Top | Spruce |
| Back & Sides | CSA Rosewood |
| Scale Length | 640 mm |
| Nut width | 53 mm |
| Finish | Lacquer |
| Country | Netherlands |
This guitar is no longer available in our inventory. If it interests you, click the ”notify me when available” button to be notified in the event that we re-acquire this guitar for re-sale.
Bert Kwakkel has been building guitars for over 50 years and has had an impressive number of professional concert artists record and publicly perform on his instruments for many decades including Simon Dinnigan, Sean Shibe, Matthew McAllister, Ian Watt and many, many others. This is his most widely known model, which he calls "Merula" - Latin for "blackbird", a name he chose not only for his childhood fondness of this bird but also as a reference to its birdsong, which to him has a sonorous beauty that he hopes to capture in his guitars. Features of this model include back and sides of aged CSA rosewood (minimum 40 years old), a unique "ergonomic" sculpted heel shape which allows for much more comfortable left-hand thumb positioning when reaching for notes above the 12th fret, and his own bracing system under the soundboard. The top is supported with 9 traditional fan braces and 6 thinner, 'full-length' and 2 additional 'shorter' cross-braces (in the area around the bridge) which makes this a hybrid fan/lattice system to achieve both a natual, lyrical sound with the benefit of added power. It is in concert-ready and excellent condition with only some checking in the finish (purely aesthetic and of no structural concern) but otherwise has no cracks or repairs.

