Halo Fanned Fret Acoustic Guitars | 6-String and 7-String Models

Update 5/12/2020 - we are no longer offering custom acoustic builds so we can better focus our attention and resources on offering the best solid & semi-hollow electric models. We are also further strengthening the custom shop side of our business. Thanks to all our customer who purchased acoustic guitars over the years. Maybe we'll bring them back again in the future!

We still offer semi-hollow electric guitars through the custom shop.

Here's a link to the Halo Guitar Customization Tool: https://www.haloguitars.com/store/custom-guitars.html

We've seen a lot of growth in interest for fanned fret guitars over the past several years. In fact, a significant portion of the electric guitars we're building for people through the Halo Custom Shop are fanned fret designs.

If you're unfamiliar with the term "fanned fret", it just means the frets are installed at various angles resembling a hand fan, as opposed to all the frets being installed perpendicular to the center line of the instrument. It basically allows for a guitar to have multiple scale lengths instead of just one, single scale length.

We've also noticed a lot of people have expressed interest in getting an acoustic guitar from us. Coincidentally (or not), a famous Taiwanese songwriter visited our shop in Cupertino today, and he was almost exclusively interested in our custom acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, I was only able to show him a variety of electric guitars and basses because that's what we had on display in our showroom. But, he did seem impressed, and even more impressed when he learned of the pricing (he thought the Halo instruments would have been much more expensive). Perhaps I didn't need to mention this Taiwanese songwriter, but his brief visit reminded me of the real interest and demand for custom acoustic guitars and it prompted me to write this blog post today.

Historically, Halo hasn't focused on acoustic guitars as much as it did solid body electric guitars. But, over the course of about ten years, we've accumulated the right people, knowledge and resources required to start taking our first steps into the world of acoustic guitars.

Our first five acoustic guitar models are based around the modern dreadnought body style. Two of the models are fanned fret designs with cutaways. The other three are single scale, non-cutaway designs. Here are mockups of the fanned fret designs:

Halo Fanned Fret Acoustic Guitar 6-String with Cutaway (Halo DC-6-R-27/25.5-TBRN)

Halo Fanned Fret Acoustic Guitar 7-String with Cutaway (Halo DC-7-R-27/25.5-TBRN)

These fanned fret acoustic guitars are built with solid Sitka Spruce tops (painted transparent brown), Mahogany sides/back, Ebony fretboard, Ebony bridge, Ebony headstock veneer, Bone nut, and Bone saddle. We use a modified Martin-inspired Standard X Non-Scalloped Bracing pattern. We join the neck to the body (at the 14th fret) with a traditional dovetail neck joint. We think these guitars will be great for heavy strummers who play all across the neck and in dropped tunings. We held off on factory-installing any electronics for these first models so we could focus all the attention on the acoustic side of things first. But, if a pickup is needed, then a simple undersaddle pickup from the Fishman AG-Series could be a quick and easy mod.

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots of what we've done at the factory in preparation for these guitars:

Halo Fanned Fret Acoustic Fretboard

Making Halo Fanned Fret Ebony Bridges

Halo Fanned Fret Ebony Bridges

Herringbone Purfling (image from stewmac.com)

That's all for now, but I'll be sure to write another blog post when the guitars are completed and ready to be demo'd.